Above you will see price and availability details for A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire by A.P. Chekhov from the leading UK book stores.
To allow you to quickly compare prices, the stores are arranged in order of delivered price, cheapest first. Click on a store name to buy this book or to view further details.
Books Related to A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire A.P. Chekhov - ISBN: 0141025506
Penguin marketing - Rated
Penguin is evidently looking for ways to re-market the classics - an exercise in modern marketing.
Just as Orwell's "Fighting in Spain" (no. 18 in the series) is in merely an abridged version of "Homage to Catalonia", Chekhov's "Journey to the End of the Russian Empire" is compiled from "Extract from A Life in Letters" and "The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin."
Spend the money on the originals.
Fascinating - Rated
This slim volume, part of the Great Journeys series, is a short read at around 100 pages, but nevertheless an involving and moving one. The account given by Chekhov of his journey across Siberia to Sakhalin prison island in the Russian Empire's far east is divided roughly half and half between journey and destination, and his experiences in the latter are harrowing.
Chekhov's research into penal conditions, and descriptions of the prisoners and their families was, and is, a valuable social history document - but to today's more casual reader, the value, as ever with this author, is in the exquisite, understated writing, and the overall sense of sympathy and humanity.
The book is not without occasional humourous asides during the journey, but overall, this journey and its destination does not make for uplifting reading. It is however essential for anyone who loves Chekhov's more well known work and in a way, it makes an interesting companion to the well known Gulag books by Solzhenitsyn, if only to understand more fully the history of the Russian penal system. Recommended.
