8 h 23 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A country estate, a hunting outing, a death—and a circle of people with something to hide.
In The Shooting Party, Anton Chekhov brings you into rural Russia, among landowners, officials and country people. Estates, small towns and forests form the setting for a crime that disturbs the district. A death brings the law into life on the estate, and an inquiry puts hidden motives and broken trust under scrutiny.
This is Chekhov’s only full-length novel, an early work that draws on crime and sensation fiction. Beneath the mystery lie unshared love, wounded pride and the damage vanity can do. In a world where power belongs to a few, desire and betrayal give the inquiry a darker weight. Expect a louder, more melodramatic mood than the quiet of his later work.
What you’ll discover
- An estate under suspicion Enter a country world where a death brings private lives within reach of the law.
- Desire with a cost Follow the strain of unshared love, broken trust and pride that leaves damage behind.
- A circle of secrets Consider an inquiry among people who each have something they would rather keep hidden.
- Power in few hands Look beyond the crime to a world shaped by idleness, vanity and unequal power.
- Chekhov before the plays Meet a young writer exploring crime fiction while still finding his own voice.
Who will love it
Readers who love a murder mystery with a psychological edge will enjoy it, as will anyone drawn to Russian country estates, flawed narrators and stormy lakes. Fans of Chekhov will find his early storytelling here.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A bored magistrate answers a Count's summons
- A Count, a forester's daughter, and a storm
- Two wild nights burn through his good sense
- Pride keeps him from one woman and tempts him toward another
- A wedding feast and a kiss in the grotto
- Jealousy and betrayal empty the bailiff's house
- A shooting party ends in a scream from the forest
- Pride and weakness drive the narrator's choices
- Money, vanity and the price of a woman
- A frame story, a parrot and a lake that keep watch
Who’s who
- Sergey Zinov'evThe young examining magistrate and narrator, clever and proud, who drinks too much and cannot say no to his friend the Count.
- Count Alexey KarnéevA rich, weak, talkative landowner who drinks, chases women and wants entertainment more than anything else.
- Olenka (Olga Skvortsova)A vain, pretty forester's daughter who loves bright clothes, dreams of high society and a dramatic death, and wants a better life.
- Pëtr Egorych UrbeninThe Count's honest, heavy, hard-working bailiff, a widower with two children, who falls deeply in love with Olenka.
- Kaetan PshekhotskyA silent, watchful Polish guest of the Count who clings to the household and quietly takes whatever money he can.
- Doctor Pavel Ivanovich VoznesenskyNicknamed Screw for his squint, a kind, shabby, trusting doctor who is Zinov'ev's best friend and loves Nadenka.
- Nadezhda Nikolaevna KalininThe justice of the peace's proud, intelligent daughter, who loves Zinov'ev and seeks a purpose for her life.
- PolycarpZinov'ev's lazy, sharp-tongued servant, a devoted reader of adventure novels who scolds his master at every step.
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Das Drama auf der Jagd
by Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow · 1884
A parrot screeches of a husband and his murdered wife before a bored magistrate rides to a Count's lake estate.
Medium level5–10 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
A handsome stranger with a diamond ring walks into a newspaper office in April 1880 and begs the editor to print his story. He says he was once an examining magistrate and that every word is true.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A bored magistrate answers a Count's summons
Zinov'ev wakes from a stifling nap in his village house. His parrot screeches that a husband has killed his wife and then demands sugar. From the first page the story is full of warning, and nobody listens.
A peasant brings a letter from Count Alexey Karnéev, who has just come back to his estate across the lake. The Count begs his old friend to hurry over. Zinov'ev does not even like the Count, whom he finds weak, vain and tiresome. Two summers earlier their drinking made him notorious across the district, and he is ashamed of it. He starts to refuse, and the words die on his tongue. Loneliness takes hold, he remembers velvet sofas and wild nights, and he says he will come.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1884
- Language
- Deutsch
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. The Shooting Party. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shooting-party.
Chekhov, A. P. (2026). The shooting party. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shooting-party (Original work published 1884)
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. The Shooting Party. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shooting-party.
@book{chekhov2026shooting,
author = {Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich},
title = {The Shooting Party},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-shooting-party},
note = {First published 1884}
}
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What is The Shooting Party by Chekhov about?
It is a crime novel about a young magistrate, a rich Count and a beautiful forester's daughter in rural Russia. Love, jealousy and drink lead to a murder during a hunting picnic, and an inquiry follows.
Who is Ivan Dem'yanych in The Shooting Party?
Ivan Dem'yanych is the magistrate's parrot, named after a village shopkeeper with a similar hooked nose. The bird keeps screeching that a husband has killed his wife, a refrain that echoes through the story.
Is The Shooting Party a true story?
It is fiction. Chekhov wrote it early in his career as a serial crime novel, and its frame has a stranger claiming the events really happened, a device that adds mystery to the tale.
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.
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