The Chekhov-Saunders Humanity Kit is a series of documents based on a class on Anton Chekhov’s Little Trilogy taught at Syracuse by George Saunders on October 31st, 2013. It is a do-it-yourself kit with a variety of optional parts provided: a syllabus, essays, papers, and a partial transcript of the class itself.
Please begin by reading Chekhov’s Little Trilogy.
• The Man in the Case
• Gooseberries
• About Love
(The public domain translations by Constance Garnett are linked above. Or you could buy the Yarmolinsky translations Saunders recommends in the syllabus, one advantage being that he cites specific page numbers here and there.)
Suggested ways to use the kit:
1. For best results: Read the stories with friends, your book group or other interested parties, and then write and share your own papers according to instructions given in the Saunders syllabus. The writing requirement alters the experience of reading together profoundly, whether you share your papers or not. Read the extra material published here—essays, transcripts and papers—before or after, as you like. Or,
2. Do all these things on your own, or,
3. Read and talk about the stories with one or more people, and forget about the rest entirely. Or:
4. Read the stories and/or everything else included here, in any old way you please.
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