The Schoolmistress And Other Stories

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Schoolmistress, and Other Stories" by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Reproduction of the original: Little Tora: The Swedish Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Mrs. Woods Baker

The kindly doctor was entertaining his brother-in-law, and all the family were sitting round the table in state. The polished silver and shining glass, with porcelain, flowers, and fruit, seemed to be all that had been provided for the dinner. The usual "grace" had hardly been said, when a trim maid announced that a little girl was at the door, who must see the doctor about something particular. "There is nobody sick more than usual," she says; "but she must come in," continued the irritated damsel-in-waiting. "Let her come in here. You can never have your meals in peace!" said the doctor's wife affectionately. The soup and the little girl came in together, the latterly evidently quite prepared to state her errand. She was a small, straight child, with a determined air and a cheery face, as if sure of success in her undertaking. Fresh in Monday cleanliness, her white cotton head-kerchief stood stiffly out in a point behind, and her calico apron was without spot or wrinkle. Her shoes, though they had been diligently blackened and were under high polish, did not correspond with the rest of her appearance. They had evidently been made for a boy, an individual much larger than their present wearer. Great wrinkles crossing each other shut off some low, unoccupied land near the toe, and showed how much of the sole had been too proud to touch the common ground. All this the observers saw at once. "Well, Tora!" said the doctor pleasantly, after she had dropped her bob-courtesies, and "good-days" had been exchanged. "May I sing for you?" said the little girl, without further hesitation, as she hastily took out a thin, black book from the small pocket handkerchief in which it had been carefully wrapped. "Sing? yes, surely!" said the doctor. "Just the thing for us while we are taking our dinner. My brother-in-law here is a famous judge of music, so you must do your best." Tora opened the book, took what she considered an imposing position, and announced the name of the song. It was a patriotic one, and in the full chorus of the schoolroom it had stirred the young Swedish hearts to their depths.

The Schoolmistress and Other Stories (1920) is a collection of short stories by Russian writer Anton Chekhov. “The Schoolmistress” was written in 1897 and published in an issue of Moscow’s daily newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti. Even for Chekhov, whose work is characteristically bleak and noted for its unsparing realism, the title story of this collection is particularly hopeless. And yet, reading it alongside these other stories by a true icon of world and Russian literature, one cannot help but feel a sense of hope, reminded—as Chekhov’s readers almost invariably are—of the light one finds in even the darkest of places. “The Schoolmistress,” which Chekhov wrote in Nice, is a brief story that follows Maria Vasilyevna as she returns to the village where she lives and works after collecting her pay in town. On the way, her cart nearly overturns, and she is forced to get out in the middle of a freezing river. To dry off, she takes a break at a local tavern, where she meets the formerly handsome Khanov, a landlord of her acquaintance. As she continues on her journey, she muses on her lot in life. Beset with memories and regrets, she struggles to make it home to a life she can hardly bear. “A Nervous Breakdown,” originally published in 1889, is the story of a young law student who reluctantly agrees to accompany his friends on a night in Moscow’s red-light district. Overwhelmed with despair and guilt, he struggles to reconcile what he sees with his own idealistic sense of the world. These are only two of the twenty-one works collected in The Schoolmistress and Other Stories, which showcase the immense talents of Anton Chekhov, an icon of Russian literature. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Anton Chekhov’s The Schoolmistress and Other Stories is a classic of Russian literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Schoolmistress and Other Stories By Anton Chekhov