Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 1904), a Russian physician, short-story writer, and playwright, wrote hundreds of stories that delved beneath the surface of Russian society, exposing the hidden motives of his characters and the ways in which prevailing social forces influenced their lives. This collection contains five of his most highly regarded stories, all from his maturity, and set in a variety of Tsarist Russian milieux.Included are "The Black Monk" (1894), "The House with the Mezzanine" (1896), "The Peasants" (1897), "Gooseberries" (1898), and "The Lady with the Toy Dog" (1899). In these incisive tales, readers will discover a master of character, nuance, and setting developing the basic themes of his oeuvre: the sociological and psychological obstacles in the way of human affection and satisfactory development of the personality."