The early stories of Anton Chekhov in this volume are obvious early works done by a master storyteller. They are sometimes simple sketches of characters which in a few pages illustrates their humanity, their strengths and weaknesses. All of the stories have been available in audiobook format, but for me reading them for myself is very gratifying. Chekhov has a grasp on the human condition and in the last three stories of the book he shows the promise that would be fulfilled with his famous stories, plays and novels. About Truth, About Freedon and About Love form a short triogy of stories that have 2 or three people telling stories of events in their lives. These stories resonate with the Arabian Nights stories in that a story ends with the storytellers going to sleep and tell another story the next day.

As Max Bollinger states in the introduction, the stories point out problems in the lives of the characters, but don't offer solutions. What they offer is characters with problems that we can identify with, that are echoed in our lives and the lives of our friends and loved ones. This alone makes them worth searching out and reading. ( )

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov as translated by Constance Garnett and edited by Max Bollinger provides the text to the fourteen stories on the Audio CD’s 1 to 3 of Chekhov’s Short Stories as very ably narrated by Max Bollinger.
My favourite stories in this collection are The Helpmate and About Truth both of which are very witty.
The other stories are typically Chekhovian in that they tend to start in the middle and have inconclusive endings. For this reason I find them dissatisfying and unmemorable, in the main, although they are wonderfully well-written and cleverly observed slices of life.
This is yet another labour of love by Max Bollinger in bringing out this collection to supplement his growing library of Chekhov and Turgenev material. ( )