Six selections from the famed Russian showcase his natural aptitude for detail, dialogue, humor, and compassion. Includes The Darling, a poignant piece supporting the claim that life has no meaning without love; as well as The Kiss, Anna on the Neck, The Man in a Case, The Malefactor, and the title story. Chekhov’s unerring insight into the turbulent emotions that stir men and women, in The Chemist’s Wife and the others to be found within The Duel and Other Stories, instills his gemlike fiction with a still-undiminished power