The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories

The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories

The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest Russian writers of all time. The stories in this collection are all set in rural Russia and explore the lives of ordinary people. The title story, "The Cook's Wedding," tells the story of a cook who is getting married. The story follows the preparations for the wedding and the various characters who are involved in it. The other stories in the collection explore a variety of themes, including love, death, and the struggles of everyday life. In "The Darling," a woman struggles to find her place in a society that does not accept her. In "The Lady with the Dog," a man and a woman fall in love despite their different social classes. The stories in this collection are all written in Chekhov's signature style, which is characterized by its realism and its focus on the inner lives of its characters. Through these stories, Chekhov paints a vivid picture of life in rural Russia and the struggles of its people.

By Anton Chekhov · First published 1900 · Genre: Realistic Fiction, Short Story, Romance · 32 chapters · 61,888 words

First lines

GRISHA, a fat, solemn little person of seven, was standing by the kitchen door listening and peeping through the keyhole. In the kitchen something extraordinary, and in his opinion never seen before, was taking place. A big, thick-set, red-haired peasant, with a beard, and a drop of perspiration on his nose, wearing a cabman's full coat, was sitting at the kitchen table on which they chopped the meat and sliced the onions. He was balancing a saucer on the five fingers of his right hand and drinking tea out of it, and crunching sugar so loudly that it sent a shiver down Grisha's back. Aksinya Stepanovna, the old nurse, was sitting on the dirty stool facing him, and she, too, was drinking tea. Her face was grave, though at the same time it beamed with a kind of triumph. Pelageya, the cook, was busy at the stove, and was apparently trying to hide her face. And on her face Grisha saw a regular illumination: it was burning and shifting through every shade of colour, beginning with a crimson purple and ending with a deathly white. She was continually catching hold of knives, forks, bits of wood, and rags with trembling hands, moving, grumbling to herself, making a clatter, but in reality doing nothing. She did not once glance at the table at which they were drinking tea, and to the questions put to her by the nurse she gave jerky, sullen answers without turning her face.

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1860-1904 · Anton Chekhov, 1860-1904 · Anton Pavlovich · Chekhov · Fiction · Russia · Short stories · Social life and customs · Translations into English · air · auntie · bed

Contents

More by Anton Chekhov