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Chekhov's stories are about nothing and everything. This trilogy has the timeless simplicity of what Nabokov called Chekhov's "dove-grey world": the lives of ordinary people set in the extraordinary expanse of Russia's landscape and altering skies. But in the unrequited longings of the characters' souls, in their quiet tragedies and in their questioning of truth, freedom, love and happiness, the stories are lifted to another plane. Russian-born Max Bollinger whose passion for Chekhov is palpable, is perfect reader. --Rachel Redford, The Observer (UK)
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A Trilogy about Truth, Freedom and Love
The third audio book in the series of Chekhov's Short Stories featuring a trilogy of interlinked stories about Truth, Freedom and Love. Read by Max Bollinger in English (unabridged). First published in 1898 in Russian and released as separate stories. This title, based on translations by Constance Garnett with revision and adaptation by Max Bollinger follows Chekhov's original vision by bringing the three stories together once again.
Chekhov dedicated considerable amount of time writing the 3 stories in this trilogy and was very particular about his intention to release them as once piece. This is evident from his correspondence with his publisher. But his wishes were ignored during his lifetime and the first story had been published separately. The story received colossal amount of attention from both professional critics and general public and resonated so strongly that readers were compelled to write long letters to Chekhov (in some cases over 20 pages in length) praising him for being so truthful, for enlightening and reflecting the reality of their lives.
"Happiness does not exist and should not exist. And if there is purpose in life, this purpose should not be our personal happiness, it should be about something more intelligent, something more divine", commented Leo Tolstoy after reading Chekhov's second story in the trilogy.
The third story, About Love, concludes the trilogy. The relationship described in the third story was based on Chekhov's own relationship with Miss Avilova who upon publication of this story painted Chekhov as "busy bee who flies about and is happy to collect honey from just about anything on its way". Chekhov quickly responded to Miss Avilova,"You are being unkind towards your busy bee. The bee first sees bright beautiful flowers and only then collects honey from them".
After publication of all stories in this trilogy, even most unflattering critics of Chekhov agreed that these 3 stories represented a significant milestone in Chehov's personal development as a serious writer. They all noted that the tone of these stories was less frivolous in comparison to his earlier work. Regarding Chekhov's About Love, Mikhailovsky wrote that Chekhov was touching upon most significant and important questions of human life with such skill, depth and emotion that "Chekhov in lifting us to the sky, is showing us a third dimension, so to speak".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As a native Russian speaker and a big admirer of Chekhov, I felt a little bit apprehensive before listening to an audio book of one of the greatest Russian authors in English. However this carefully selected collection of stories, including my all time favourite About Love, in a talented interpretation of Max Bollinger turned out to be an utter treat. Thanks to the faithful translation the text preserves the pace, poetry and depth of the Russian original. The narrator's presentation of the stories is thoughtful and moving, while classical music helps to set the mood and atmosphere.
All in all, highly recommended experience.
All in all, highly recommended experience.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Max Bollinger adds to his growing collection of audio books with this release of a very important trilogy of works by Anton Chekhov - ABOUT TRUTH, ABOUT FREEDOM, and ABOUT LOVE, written in 1898. These fascinating stories are described by the reader Max Bollinger 'The three stories in this volume present particular importance to Chekhov himself....I also found these three stories rather special for a number of reasons, one of which is the fact that Chekhov opens his personal heart here and allows his personal voice to show the goodness of his soul. I hope the listeners and readers will be able to appreciate not only the literary qualities of these magnificent pieces, but will also see what a wonderful human being Anton Pavlovich was and still is today and will be able to see his amazing ability to enrich our lies through his words.' The stories are meant to be together and hence the inclusion of two CDs to make this a total experience.
Once again Bollinger's mixed accent of Russian and British flavor adds immensely to these three stories. Being not only an actor and Russian historian and expert on Russian literature, Bollinger has adapted the Constance Clara Garnett translations of these stories with aplomb. He also has elected to enhance the mood of these stories by including some background sounds like rain and portions of music from Antonin Dvorák's 'Slavonic Dances', much the way he used Tchaikovsky in his previous readings of Chekhov. This is a total success of theatrically presenting the drama of Chekhov with the spoken voice, atmospheric sounds and appropriate music. Grady Harp, December 10
Once again Bollinger's mixed accent of Russian and British flavor adds immensely to these three stories. Being not only an actor and Russian historian and expert on Russian literature, Bollinger has adapted the Constance Clara Garnett translations of these stories with aplomb. He also has elected to enhance the mood of these stories by including some background sounds like rain and portions of music from Antonin Dvorák's 'Slavonic Dances', much the way he used Tchaikovsky in his previous readings of Chekhov. This is a total success of theatrically presenting the drama of Chekhov with the spoken voice, atmospheric sounds and appropriate music. Grady Harp, December 10
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A Continuation of Treasures by Chekhov
16 Dec 2010
Format:Audio CD
Max Bollinger adds to his growing collection of audio books with this release of a very important trilogy of works by Anton Chekhov - ABOUT TRUTH, ABOUT FREEDOM, and ABOUT LOVE, written in 1898. These fascinating stories are described by the reader Max Bollinger 'The three stories in this volume present particular importance to Chekhov himself....I also found these three stories rather special for a number of reasons, one of which is the fact that Chekhov opens his personal heart here and allows his personal voice to show the goodness of his soul. I hope the listeners and readers will be able to appreciate not only the literary qualities of these magnificent pieces, but will also see what a wonderful human being Anton Pavlovich was and still is today and will be able to see his amazing ability to enrich our lies through his words.' The stories are meant to be together and hence the inclusion of two CDs to make this a total experience.
Once again Bollinger's mixed accent of Russian and British flavor adds immensely to these three stories. Being not only an actor and Russian historian and expert on Russian literature, Bollinger has adapted the Constance Clara Garnett translations of these stories with aplomb. He also has elected to enhance the mood of these stories by including some background sounds like rain and portions of music from Antonin Dvorák's 'Slavonic Dances', much the way he used Tchaikovsky in his previous readings of Chekhov. This is a total success of theatrically presenting the drama of Chekhov with the spoken voice, atmospheric sounds and appropriate music. Grady Harp, December 10
Once again Bollinger's mixed accent of Russian and British flavor adds immensely to these three stories. Being not only an actor and Russian historian and expert on Russian literature, Bollinger has adapted the Constance Clara Garnett translations of these stories with aplomb. He also has elected to enhance the mood of these stories by including some background sounds like rain and portions of music from Antonin Dvorák's 'Slavonic Dances', much the way he used Tchaikovsky in his previous readings of Chekhov. This is a total success of theatrically presenting the drama of Chekhov with the spoken voice, atmospheric sounds and appropriate music. Grady Harp, December 10
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