The Woman in the Case and other stories by Anton Chekhov (1953)

This collection almost all comes from a particular group of years in the 1880s when the author was following a vein of satirical sketchmaking. Their consistent characteristics are the enormous fallibility of many a human being, their capability of being gripped by things, large or small, which have impacted them in an emotional way, and have led to delusional, or obsessional, or melancholic behaviour. And then there are those who either suddenly come upon them, or have to put up with them, or are affected by them in some usually negative way. Occasionally he will broaden into more political territory, where the fallen ones are on the make, or manipulating selfishly a hopelessly moribund system. The picture made is a pretty grim one, and has that quality which one would normally associate with 'minor' authors in translation in reprints from university presses, to put it too generally. There is nothing especially 'classic' about these, which presumably is the reason they weren't translated until much later. The exception is A Visit to Friends, which is more personal and tragic. This is what I imagine the famed Chekhov to be about. Now to find out.