One of Chekhov's most important and lengthy works, this remarkable story gives a startling twist to his classic, ongoing study of bourgeois romance when he sets it on a collision course with a decaying, Czarist concept of honour. It ends in the ultimate Chekhovian observation: that fate is often ludicrous. This new translation of the literary masterpiece, which combines a beautiful romance with high suspense, is here presented for the first time as a stand-alone volume.
