When she uses the Hindu terms for psychological states, she's like someone who says, "I'm going to learn Russian and read Chekhov in the original."

"When he came here, he was reading Chekhov and all the Russian classics - at age 12," Vitaly Gorin, Tursunov's coach, said in a phone interview this month.

In the morning I went to the beach and read Chekhov and in the afternoon I came home to my computer and worked.

And as she reads Conrad and Chekhov, she begins to glimpse "some order hitherto unguessed at," a condition of life more fluid and less predictable.

It's not risible; I wish all political theorists and politicians would read Chekhov.

This happens when I read Chekhov - this is his magical quality.

She has only two words of advice for aspiring short story writers: read Chekhov!

Ashenden fell like the rest, changed the cushions of his sitting-room, hung an icon on the wall, read Chekhov and went to the ballet.

So Ms. Silverman read Ibsen and Chekhov that summer, assisted the teacher and directed some scenes.

Hanna is imprisoned, and Michael, a detached figure closed off from his emotions, helps her from a distance, sending her tapes of himself reading Homer and Chekhov.