In the Ravine and Other Short Stories

Anton Chekhov is regarded by many as the most outstanding short story writer. This may be a surprise at the first encounter with even his most famous stories, because they are rarely driven by plot or anticipation. They are often gentle in character, elusive in purpose; but they create a resonance in the imagination that rings long. Here are 12 stories, from the brightly comic to the overtly tragic, each full of the sharpest observations of personality and situation, and with implications beyond their brief form: the dying actor, the children playing a game, the cabman with his tragedy, the orator's mistake and, perhaps most richly of all, a family laid bare in In the Ravine. Anton Chekhov was a Russian short story writer and playwright. Born in 1860, he trained as a doctor and practiced medicine throughout most of his life. The third of six children, Chekhov attended university in Moscow. He married the actress Olga Knipper in 1901, but by May 1904 he was terminally ill, and died in July of that year. Kenneth Branagh, a leading figure in film, TV and on stage, is equally at home with classic and contemporary subjects. However, as director and adaptor, he has made a particular contribution to Shakespearean performance with his films such as Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Henry V. His productions of Shakespeare on stage have included Henry V, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and King Lear.