Anton Chekhov's stories and plays are for good reason admired throughout the world. The stories in this collection may not be known to all, but that in itself is no justification to purchase this audiobook. The decision to use a Russian-born actor for narration may have seemed at one time a good idea - perhaps there were hopes this would lend the readings an authenticity and immediacy. Unfortunately, this was not realized. Instead, the narrator seemed to struggle with imparting appropriate inflection and emphasis to his words - leaving the listener to puzzle out what was being said. The effect was cartoonish where it was intended to be colourful. So too with the addition of background noises such as applause, crowd noise and train whistles. I came to the conclusion that this effort was little more than an attempt to cash in on this year of Chekhov with as little effort and care as possible.

I've only listened to 3 or 4 of the stories in this audiobook and had an immediate visceral negative response. I hate the Russian accent, and the sound effects. Both are extraneous. If you're going to translate the stories into English, read them in English. I KNOW they were originally written in Russian. I KNOW this is a translation. Pick an unaffected British or mid-Atlantic American dialect and use that. I have no doubt that the stories read here are beloved by whomever the producers are, and the intent is one of loving affection. Everyone loves Chekhov. I myself have read all 13 volumes of the Ecco Chekhov, which is probably why the publisher chose to send me a free LibraryThing Early Reviewer copy. (I believe these are the Constance Garnett translations, though there is no translator credit.) But a Russian accent? The reader, Max Bollinger, as perhaps he must, gets most of the English phrasings wrong. If anything the accent distracts from the stories, as do the sound effects. The purpose of good translation is to allow the reader to dream the dream of the author, although in a different language. Like the wise graphic designer who creates pages that all but disappear when read, the translator wants to transfer to author's original intent; he/she wants to get out of the way of the text. That's because the story or novel is the real point, not the means of conveyance. All the Russian accent and sound effects do are to emphasize the artifice of the production. Maybe you can judge it as "acting." Probably so. It's performance, finally, for which I have no use.

You don't need the bio on the back to tell you that Max Bollinger is "a Russian-born British actor." The accents are mightily deuling from the start. But not in a terrible way.

This collection of fiction pieces--I hesitate to call them stories--does not represent Chekhov's best work. They are skillful sketches of characters that might have been nicely fleshed out side characters in a fuller work. Bollinger is a fine narrator except when trying to mimic female voices. However, none of his faults takes you out of the story. What does take you out of the story are the oddly chosen and poorly executed sound effects. I kept wondering if I was listening to a modern audiobook or an old-time radio drama.

I have mixed feelings about this audiobook which I received courtesy of the Early Reviewers group. On the one hand, I'm a fairly seasoned audiobook listener with a particular focus on classic mystery and literary books. Therefore, I was all too eager to listen to a rendition of Chekhov's short stories. As a russophile, I had an extra incentive and slight impatience to listen to the audiobook, but I'm sad to report that my fellow reviewers' slight dissatisfaction echoes my own. Overall, I enjoyed the recording but I couldn't help but be distracted by the sound effects and, surprisingly, the actor's intonation. It felt that Bollinger wasn't too suited to narrate the stories. His Brit-Russian accent was somewhat disconcerting yet I reveled in the stories themselves, save for the first one which took me a while to settle into. ( )

I'd have to agree with the others that the sound effects in the stories occasionally distracted me from the prose. However, I really do enjoy Chekhov, and it was very pleasant to walk to and from work listening to these stories. I thought the narrator did a decent job turning the prose into something enjoyable to the ear, and Chekhov, as always, writes great stuff. ( )