The acclaimed translating team who’ve provided lively new English versions of Dostoevsky’s and Gogol’s masterpieces now turn their attention to the best of all possible short-story writers. Pevear’s characteristically incisive introduction emphasizes Chekhov’s mastery of impressionism and realism (developed from his expressed commitment to “objectivity. . . truthful descriptions . . . [and] compassion”), en route to lucid, plainspoken translations of consensus masterpieces (“Vanka,” “The Darling,” “The Lady with the Little Dog”) and such lesser-known gems like “The Fidget,” “The Student,” and—one of its author’s most concentrated and limpid depictions of opposed “worlds” colliding—the marvelous “On Official Business.” Probably the best one-volume Chekhov currently in print, and indispensable.
