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. ( )

I was not overly impressed with this audio book. I did not care for the sound effects (such as train whistles). I also thought the readings were long for the actual length of the stories. I am most concerned about the selection of stories. Chekhov wrote hundreds of stories; the six presented here were written very early in his career, and should not be taken as evidence of his talent. Some are very short - driven more by the requirements of the magazines he was publishing in at the time. The audio book needs an introduction so that the listener will understand where these stories fit into the overall writing history and scheme of Chekhov's works. I would have expected this "book" to be the equivalent of 2-3 CDs, and not just a single CD, six story, one hour narrative.

This audio book was received as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. ( )

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

First up, I’m not really an audio book listener and I don’t know that this CD will be the one to convert me. I wasn’t too taken with the sound effects preferring a straight up reading, though I did like the reader’s accent. I’ve always loved Chekhov’s stories and the six presented here have that wonderful mix of humour and poignancy.

Listening to Chekhov short stories told in a Russian accented voice. What a pleasant way to spend an hour. Anton Chekhov does so well at condensing time and space into just a few words. Most writers of his time, and of today, would need a novel to tell what he can put into not very many pages. I'm not usually an audio book user, but did enjoy this one. The subtle sound effects and the Russian-sounding narrator added to the listening. ( )

I really enjoyed this collection of subtly funny vignettes from the life of 19th century small town Russia, even though the performer's British-Russian accent took some time getting used to. There was something odd that I didn't remember about Chekhov's stories at all, but which caught my attention this time- their climax was as subtle as their wit, and seemed to take place way before the end, or not at all. ( )

This audio book would appear to have the right ingredients - sound effects - and read by the Russian Max Bollinger. Unfortunately for me the idiosyncratic nature of Bollinger's narrative style - haughty and off the cuff - mangled these tales in the telling. If I'd come to Chekhov's stories via this recording I would probably not have returned. ( )

Nu ben ik geen al te grote fan van luisterboeken - ik luister wel, ..., ik slaag er te weinig in mijn aandacht bij het voorgelezene te houden.

En met het accentrijke, nasale stemgeluid van Max Bollinger ... nu ja, ... dan luister ik toch nog liever naar de naar adem reikende stem van Jeroen Brouwers, ... of die man die de Harry Potter-boeken voorlas ... Engelstalige Russen die klinken alsof het Nederlanders zijn die tien jaar in Australië gewoond hebben, en Engelstalige Fransozen die als Spanjaarden klinken ... dat klinkt niet best. Het sporadische achtergrondgeluid (applaus, koetsen, piano, ...) stoort bovendien meer dan dat het bijdraagt aan een 'authentieke sfeer'.

Van de verhalen zelf blijft me dus weinig bij. Dat ik een aantal van de verhalen reeds kende, was een troost. Dat ik bovendien - eindelijk? - inzag dat Tsjechov een humoristisch schrijver is, een opsteker.

http://occamsrazorlibrary.blogspot.co... ( )