This is another excellent set of stories by Chekhov. The narrator, a native Russian speaker, has a bit of a strange accent that takes getting used to, but he reads very well. "The Black Monk" dominates this collection, and it is a story that will definitely leave you thinking. ( )

This is a great selection of stories, and you couldn't ask for a better, more expressive reader than Fry. My only issue is that the Hoopla version doesn't have any pauses between stories. Chekhov is amusing in a very Russian way. Don't look for neat endings that tie everything up and bash you over the head. Just enjoy the situations and the precision with which the author presents them. Marvelous. ( )

Stephen Fry never disappoints. The combination of Fry and Chekhov is a happy one with Fry finding the exact right tone to express Chekhov's sly humor, his irony, and his humane view of life. Often the stories don't appear to have an ending, they just stop. Sometimes they don't appear to be about much of anything. And yet they are tiny gems of observation and analysis.

Some of them made me laugh. Some, like Misery, brought me to tears because I understood what Chekhov was saying about loss and the need to make sense of it. All of them made me smile, either in appreciation or agreement. Or both.

This was my first foray into Chekhov's short stories, and I was enchanted by them. I want more. I hope some of them will be narrated by Stephen Fry. ( )