7 h 11 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a cold room, a long road, and an unfinished conversation hold a whole life?
In The Schoolmistress, and Other Stories, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov finds deep feeling in small events. The title story follows Marya Vassilyevna, a village teacher whose days mean lessons, cold rooms, poor pay, and solitude. Her life is narrow and tiring, yet Chekhov asks you to look closely at the person carrying that daily weight.
The surrounding stories move among ordinary Russians in towns and country places: teachers, clerks, landowners, servants, and doctors. A road, a room, or a passing conversation becomes a place to notice hidden depths. Chekhov observes without scolding. Much remains unsaid, and a story can stop while the life within it seems to carry on.
What you’ll discover
- A teacher's lonely days Meet Marya Vassilyevna through the lessons, hardship, and solitude that shape her daily life.
- Small things, deep feeling Discover how a room, a cart, or a conversation can hold your attention.
- People without grand roles Look beyond modest lives to the feelings these ordinary people do not always reveal.
- What remains unspoken Notice the silences in conversations where the most important thing never quite reaches words.
- Endings that stay open Stay with stories that leave room for life beyond their final lines.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy short stories full of small scenes, quiet feeling and sharp portraits will love these tales. They speak to an interest in Russian life and the everyday hopes and worries of ordinary people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A tired teacher rides home through spring mud
- A student meets a street he only read about
- Grief needs a listener, and the city has none
- Youth and chance slip by in three small stories
- Exiles argue over whether wanting anything is worth it
- Hard journeys expose bribes, habit and late regret
- Official duty and a quiet scare make strangers feel connected
- Vanity, shame and small lies shape short comic tales
- Fear, faith, beauty and greed close the collection
Who’s who
- Marya VassilyevnaA village schoolmistress of thirteen years who rides home through the mud and wants only to reach her school.
- VassilyevA sensitive law student who visits S. Street with his friends and cannot shake what he sees.
- Iona PotapovA sleigh driver in St. Petersburg who has lost his son and longs for one person to listen.
- Semyon, called CannyAn old ferryman in Siberia who believes that wanting nothing is the way to live.
- MalahinAn old cattle dealer who bribes his way along the railway and loves to talk about his troubles.
- LyzhinA young examining magistrate who longs for Moscow while stranded by a blizzard on an inquest.
- MiguevA collegiate assessor who finds a baby at his door and fights with his conscience.
- Fyodor NilovA poor shoemaker who works through Christmas Eve and envies the rich.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 7 h 11 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Die Lehrerin und andere Erzählungen
by Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow
A cab driver in falling snow tries to tell strangers about his dead son, and no one listens.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A schoolmistress bumps along a muddy road, a cab driver sits in falling snow, and a young man walks into a street he knows only by reputation. Anton Chekhov wrote these tales of ordinary Russians, from clerks and ferrymen to students and shoemakers.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A tired teacher rides home through spring mud
Marya Vassilyevna has taught at a village school for thirteen years. The title story follows one cart ride back from town, where she has gone to collect her pay. The April sun is warm and the sky is huge, yet she wants only one thing, to arrive.
Chekhov fills the ride with small troubles. A watchman beats the schoolboys, the school guardian is rude, and her complaints get little attention. Then the landowner Hanov overtakes her in a four-horse carriage. He is handsome and he drinks, and he has given the school nothing but globes. She pities him, pictures saving him, and then lets the thought go.
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What is The Schoolmistress and Other Stories about?
Each story shows a small moment of longing, loneliness, fear or kindness.
Which stories are in the collection?
The collection includes The Schoolmistress, A Nervous Breakdown, Misery, Champagne, After the Theatre, A Lady's Story, In Exile, The Cattle Dealers, Sorrow, On Official Duty, The Bet, The Beauties and The Shoemaker and the Devil, among others.
What is the main message of these stories?
Chekhov does not state one message. Together, the tales show that everyday life holds longing, shame, pity and hope, and that people often fail to listen to one another. The reader is left to feel and judge.
The author
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
1860–1904 · Russian playwright and story writer
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian writer and physician. He was born in Taganrog and lived in Moscow and later Yalta. He wrote short stories and plays, including The Seagull (1896), Uncle Vanya (1897), and The Cherry Orchard (1904). He died in Badenweiler, Germany.
More by Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow
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