Publisher's Synopsis
In the waning weeks of his life, a renowned bishop reflects on his past and his priorities. Written during the period when Anton Chekhov was gravely ill with tuberculosis, "The Bishop" reflects the author's feelings about his own imminent death, and is considered one of his finest works. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a master of the short story. The son of a former serf in southern Russia, he attended Moscow University to study medicine, writing short stories for periodicals in order to support his family. What began as a necessity became a legitimate career in 1886 when he was asked to write in St. Petersburg for the Novoye Vremya (New Times), owned by millionaire magnate Alexey Suvorin. Chekhov began paying more attention to his writing, revising and developing his own principles and conceptions of truth, for a time coming under the influence of Leo Tolstoy. As a result of his widespread popularity, Chekhov amassed a vast collection of short stories displaying an early use of stream-of-consciousness writing, as well as his powerful ideas concerning the individual, the tedium of life, and the beauty nature and humanity. This edition contains "The Bishop," "The Letter," "Easter Eve," "A Nightmare," "The Murder," "Uprooted," and "The Steppe.
