Chekhov's pages are peopled with psychopaths, degenerates of genius and virtue and satirically comic characters who succumb in feeble revolt against the baseness and banality of life. They are quite unfit to combat the healthy, rude, but unintelligent forces around them.

Kovrin, Likhary6ff and Dr Andréi Yéfimitch, three heroes in this collection, are characteristic of Chekhov's outlook. Andréi Vasilyevitch Kovrin, the chief char- acter in the title story, had worn himself out and unsettled his nerves. His doctor advised him to spend the spring and summer in the country and in the nick of time came a long letter from Tänya Pesötsky asking him to•come and stay with her father at Borisovka. It was a journey which was to lead to marriage, madness and death. With the other stories and characters in this collection we have the best of Chekhov.