In this extraordinary collection of twenty tales, Richard Ford, a master short story writer in his own right, has selected his personal favorites from among more than two hundred of Chekhov's tales and short novels. These stories, ordered chronologically from 1886 to 1899, are drawn from Chekhov's most fruitful years as a short story writer. The translation is by Constance Garnett, who brought Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Turgenev to the English-speaking world.