Short Stories by Anton Chekhov, Book 3

A Trilogy about Truth, Freedom and Love

The third audio book in the series of Chekhov's Short Stories featuring a trilogy of interlinked stories about Truth, Freedom and Love. Read by Max Bollinger in English (unabridged). First published in 1898 in Russian and released as separate stories. This title, based on translations by Constance Garnett with revision and adaptation by Max Bollinger follows Chekhov's original vision by bringing the three stories together once again.

Chekhov dedicated considerable amount of time writing the 3 stories in this trilogy and was very particular about his intention to release them as once piece. This is evident from his correspondence with his publisher. But his wishes were ignored during his lifetime and the first story had been published separately. The story received colossal amount of attention from both professional critics and general public and resonated so strongly that readers were compelled to write long letters to Chekhov (in some cases over 20 pages in length) praising him for being so truthful, for enlightening and reflecting the reality of their lives.

"Happiness does not exist and should not exist. And if there is purpose in life, this purpose should not be our personal happiness, it should be about something more intelligent, something more divine", commented Leo Tolstoy after reading Chekhov's second story in the trilogy.

The third story, About Love, concludes the trilogy. The relationship described in the third story was based on Chekhov's own relationship with Miss Avilova who upon publication of this story painted Chekhov as "busy bee who flies about and is happy to collect honey from just about anything on its way". Chekhov quickly responded to Miss Avilova,"You are being unkind towards your busy bee. The bee first sees bright beautiful flowers and only then collects honey from them".