Old Arkhip sits every day by the roots of a wizened, hunchbacked willow, fishing and exchanging whispered stories with the ancient tree. One of these takes Arkhip three decades back in time, to a quiet day in early spring when a strange encounter shook him momentarily from the rural bliss in which he lived, catapulting him into a world of crime, corruption, violence and murder.

A quintessential example of Chekhov’s artistry, ‘The Willow’ is here accompanied by thirty-two other short stories – some of them never or rarely translated into English – which are representative of the three main phases of the author’s career: the short, light-hearted pieces of the late 1880s, the darker, more pessimistic tales of his maturity and the psychologically nuanced stories he wrote towards the end of his life. Taken together, this collection is further proof of Chekhov’s unparalleled skills as a practitioner of the short-story genre.

If you enjoyed The Willow and Other Stories, you might also like more short-story collections by Chekhov: In the Twilight, The Kiss and Other Stories, The Looking Glass and Other Stories, Small Fry and Other Stories, The Woman in the Case and Other Stories. Alma Classics is committed to making available a wide range of literature from around the globe.

Most of the titles are enriched by an extensive critical apparatus, notes and extra reading material, as well as a selection of photographs. The texts are based on the most authoritative edition and edited using a fresh, accessible editorial approach.

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