Chekhov is normally viewed as typical of Russian writers: grim and cynical. Or, in the words of Ira Gershwin, his works have more clouds of gray than any Russian play . Here is a unique selection of 40 stories, ranging in length from one to twenty pages, that contain a comic or ironic twist: as Mad Magazine might say, Written is a jugular vein. I found several favorites.
On the Telephone has a frustrated caller continually getting the wrong number: like someone looking into a mirror that is reflecting him looking into a mirror, ad infinitas. I am reminded of a Shelly Berman skit from the 1960s entitled Franz Kafka on the Telephone, in which the operator frustrates similarly the caller.
The Objet dArt is an ironic twist on the proverbial white elephant object, in the vein of an O. Henry anecdote: what goes around, comes around. Possibly the most amusing in this selection.
The Exclamation Mark is one of two treatises on the use and value of punctuation. Or, should I say uselessness and valuelessness? (The other is A Man of Ideas.) Could this be the source of Seinfeld skit in which Elaine and her editor differ in opinion as to its use? (Top of the Morning to You!)
On the Telephone has a frustrated caller continually getting the wrong number: like someone looking into a mirror that is reflecting him looking into a mirror, ad infinitas. I am reminded of a Shelly Berman skit from the 1960s entitled Franz Kafka on the Telephone, in which the operator frustrates similarly the caller.
The Objet dArt is an ironic twist on the proverbial white elephant object, in the vein of an O. Henry anecdote: what goes around, comes around. Possibly the most amusing in this selection.
The Exclamation Mark is one of two treatises on the use and value of punctuation. Or, should I say uselessness and valuelessness? (The other is A Man of Ideas.) Could this be the source of Seinfeld skit in which Elaine and her editor differ in opinion as to its use? (Top of the Morning to You!)
