Twelve early comedic short stories by the Russian master of the form.An NYRB Classics OriginalThe Prank is Chekhov’s own selection of the best of his early work, the first book he put together and the first book he hoped
About the Author
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), the son of a grocer and a former serf, worked as a physician and ran an open clinic for the poor, while also writing the plays and short stories that have established him as one of the greatest figures in Russian literature.Maria Bloshteyn was born in Saint Petersburg and emigrated to Canada when she was nine years old. She is a Russian-English translator and scholar and the author of The Making of a Counter-Culture Icon: Henry Miller’s Dostoevsky. She lives in Toronto.Nikolay Chekhov (1858–1889), older brother of Anton, studied art at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His drawings frequently accompanied his brother’s early published stories. Although considered the most promising of the three Chekhov brothers in his youth, Nikolay’s alcoholism and habit of sleeping in the streets precipitated his death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one.