The Bet, and other stories

About the book

The title story begins in an argument about capital punishment and imprisonment, leading a banker and a young lawyer to arrange a wager involving fifteen years of voluntary confinement. The conditions make time, reading, isolation, and expectation central to a dispute that initially appears to concern a simple principle. The collection also includes A Tedious Story, where an ageing professor examines the erosion of confidence and connection within an apparently distinguished life. Other pieces approach illness, embarrassment, social encounters, and the uneasy relations between people who misunderstand one another. Chekhov repeatedly moves from a recognizable situation to feelings that refuse a neat explanation. This selection invites readers to notice how strongly a private crisis can alter the meaning of circumstances that an observer might consider perfectly ordinary.

• Isolation
• Conviction and experience
• Inner crises

Why read it

For the title story's concentrated experiment and the less easily resolved disturbances of the surrounding stories.

Story collection · translated by S. S. Koteliansky and J. M. Murry