This volume presents the first comprehensive annotated edition of Chekhov's earliest stories in English. Translated as part of a unique project involving 85 volunteers from 9 countries, the 58 stories were all written between 1880 and 1882, when Chekhov was in his early twenties, and still at medical school. They make up volume 1 of the 10 volumes of short stories in the authoritative thirty-volume Academy of Sciences edition of Chekhov's Complete Collected Works, and have been arranged in chronological order. Ranging from comic tales, hilarious skits, literary parodies, outrageous pot-boilers and poignant novellas, the stories are all aimed at a wide audience, and offer a revealing window into the unknown early chapter of Chekhov's life and literary career.