Gooseberries

By Anton Chekhov

"Gooseberries" by Anton Chekhov is a short story about Ivan Ivanovich, a man who visits his brother and reflects on his own life. While picking gooseberries, Ivan compares his unsatisfied life to the abundant berries and realizes that he has been living for material wealth and social status, instead of finding true happiness and fulfillment. He also reflects on the futility of life and the inevitability of death. Through Ivan's musings and introspection, Chekhov explores themes of mortality, materialism, and the search for meaning in life. The story ends with Ivan feeling a sense of contentment and appreciation for the simple joys of life, such as the taste of ripe gooseberries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Interactive Media
• Release date: Jan 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787241282

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, in southern Russia, and in his youth paid for his own education and supported his entire family by writing short, satirical sketches of Russian life. Though he eventually became a physician and once considered medicine his principal career, he continued to gain popularity and praise as a writer for various Russian newspapers, eventually authoring more literary work and ultimately his most well-known plays, including Ivanov, The Seagull, and Uncle Vanya. He died of tuberculosis in 1904, and is regarded as one of the best short story writers in history, influencing such authors as Ernest Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov, and Raymond Carver.

Reviews for Gooseberries

[ericlee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first of the Penguin Little Black Classics series that I've read -- having bought a whole shelf of them a few years back -- and it's a good one. Chekhov is described as having 'perfected the short story' and the three stories in this slender volume offer some evidence of that. The best of the three is the first one, 'The Kiss', a tale of imagination, sexual desire, fantasy, and loneliness. With just one character of significance, and 25 pages long, it's not exactly 'War and Peace', but is a great example of what a short story can be.