A Russian author, playwright, and physician, Anton Chekhov is widely considered one of the best short-story writers of all time. Having influenced such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and James Joyce, Chekhov's stories are often noted for their stream-of-consciousness style and their vast number. Raymond Carver once said, "It is not only the immense number of stories he wrote - for few, if any, writers have ever done more - it is the awesome frequency with which he produced masterpieces, stories that shrive us as well as delight and move us, that lay bare our emotions in ways only true art can accomplish."

In The Complete Stories of Anton Chekhov, Volume 2: 1886, Blackstone has compiled fifty-five of Anton Chekhov's short stories: Art, A Blunder, Children, Misery, An Upheaval, An Actor's End, The Requiem, Anyuta, Ivan Matveyitch, The Witch, A Story without an End, A Joke, Agafya, A Nightmare, Grisha, Love, Easter Eve, Ladies, Strong Impressions, A Gentleman Friend, A Happy Man, The Privy Councillor, A Day in the Country, At a Summer Villa, Panic Fears, The Chemist's Wife, Not Wanted, The Chorus Girl, The Schoolmaster, A Troublesome Visitor, The Husband, A Misfortune, A Pink Stocking, Martyrs, The First-Class Passenger, Talent, The Dependents, The Jeune Premier, In the Dark, A Trivial Incident, A Tripping Tongue, A Trifle from Life, Difficult People, In the Court, A Peculiar Man, Mire, Dreams, Hush!, Excellent People, An Incident, The Orator, A Work of Art, Who Was to Blame?, Vanka, and On the Road.

Anton Chekov (1860 - 1904) was the author of hundreds of short stories and several plays and is regarded by many as both the greatest Russian storyteller and the father of modern drama.