BRAVING CHEKHOV’S STORIES.

BRAVING CHEKHOV’S STORIES. It is a puzzle that, given my preference for avoiding disturbing surprises when reading, I have read so many of Chekhov’s stories. There are heartbreaking tragedies which explode for the reader in some of Chekhov’s stories. I think the reason that I can bear the most terrible of Chekhov’s stories is that Chekhov was a doctor in the last nineteenth century, a time when usually the best a doctor could do was to comfort the dying and hold the hand of people in pain. Chekhov’s stories reflect that experience.