Short Story Reading Assignments: Chekhov & Turgenev (Patreon)

For the month of April, our Big Read is Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

As there are six parts to this great Russian novel, we’ll be reading it over six weeks.

I recommend the Pevear and Volokhonsky edition.

Alongside Dostoyevsky, we will also have eight Short Story Masterclasses and Poetry Appreciation Classes. 

I’m setting you the short story readings now, so you can read 1-2 stories per week and be ready for a deep reread together (or feel free to get to them whenever you have time, in whatever pace suits you).

Chekhov Short Story Reading Assignments

We’ll be reading, analysing, and appreciating these four short stories from Anton Chekhov:

• The Lady with the Dog
• The Kiss
• Ward No. 6
• The Darling

The Chekhov stories are available across the two-volume Everyman set, translated by Constance Garnett. Of course, some might call preferring Garnett’s translation of Chekhov to Pevear and Volokhonsky controversial, but that’s the one I’m working from.

Turgenev Short Story Reading Assignments

We’ll be breaking down, relishing, and savouring these wonderful short stories by Ivan Turgenev:

• The Live Relic
• Kasyan from Fair Springs
• Bezhin Meadow
• The Singers

All four Turgenev stories are from A Sportsman’s Notebook, and I personally recommend the Charles and Natasha Hepburn translation.

We’ll also be doing some Poetry Appreciation Classes, starting with Robert Browning and Emily Dickinson.

These are two immensely difficult poets (Dickinson especially), but their rewards are proportional to how much effort you bring to them, and you can never exhaust them.

Robert Browning Poetry Appreciation Reading Assignments

Here are the main poems we will be dealing with:

• Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
• Love Among the Ruins
• A Toccata of Galuppi’s
• Caliban upon Setebos
• Andrea del Sarto
• Fra Lippo Lippi

Fearless Browning fans will also be invited to explore some sections from Browning’s formidable The Ring and the Book.

Emily Dickinson Poetry Appreciation Reading Assignments

And here are some of Dickinson’s poetic gems – we’ll hold these up to the light and marvel at how they shine:

• Because That You Are Going
• Had this one Day not been
• There’s a certain Slant of light
• Tell all the Truth by tell it slant
• We grow accustomed to the Dark
• Because I could not stop for Death

That’s all for now, folks!

Happy reading!