Club Chekhov - All Subtext, No Action
Reading, analysis and exploration of the literary oeuvre left to us by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. We will read his standout stories, in English and in his original Russian. We will also discuss some of his most surprising themes as well as notes on the most widely-used translations and what tends to get lost in the process.
Gooseberries
What is the price of a personal paradise? Join host Lev Lesokhin for the second installment of our Chekhov trilogy as we explore "Gooseberries" (1898). In this episode, we follow the story of a man obsessed with buying a country estate, partly to grow his own gooseberries, and the brother who watches this "success" with a mixture of pity and disgust.
This story explores the notion of happiness and its flipside - suffering. Some of the questions it raises are deeply personal and philosophical. Can anyone truly be happy? Is happiness an illusion of the mind? Does happiness...
The Man in a Shell
The Man in a Shell – 19th-Century Cringe
Description:
Is it possible to live your entire life in a "case"? Join our reading host Lev Lesokhin, NYC tech executive and bilingual Chekhov enthusiast, as we dive into the first installment of Anton Chekhov’s famous 1898 trilogy. This is followed by Gooseberries and then About Love.
In this episode, we learn of the neuroses of Belikov, a man so terrified of the real world that he retreats into galoshes and umbrellas, effectively "gatekeeping" his own happiness. We explore why this 19th-century character study is the ulti...
Professor Alexander Burry - Chekhov's Quiet Genius
In this episode, we explore the life and legacy of Anton Chekhov—a writer whose quiet revolution in storytelling continues to shape how we understand modern life. The first such discussion between Alex Burry, a lit professor at Ohio State University and Lev Lesokhin, a tech exec and lifelong reader of Chekhov.
Born into a lower-middle-class family—the grandson of a serf who bought his freedom and the son of a struggling shopkeeper—Chekhov stood apart from many of his aristocratic contemporaries. His early experiences, along with his work as a physician treating peasants and laborers, shaped a lite...
Introduction to Club Chekhov
Club Chekhov is a collaborative reading and conversation series hosted by literary scholar Alexander Burry and technologist-reader Lev Lesokhin. Together, they journey through the complete works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, pairing close reading with lively discussion that bridges academic insight with contemporary curiosity.
Rather than treating Chekhov as a distant monument of “great literature,” the podcast centers on the ordinary lives he elevated: clerks, teachers, doctors, dreamers, and strivers navigating boredom, longing, pettiness, tenderness, and sudden flashes of grace. Burry brings expertise in Russian literature, language, and scholarship; Lesokhin brings the perspective of a modern bilingual reader fasc...
