First published 1899
Dmitri Gurov meets Anna Sergeyevna while vacationing in Yalta, expecting nothing more than a brief affair. Both are married to others, both assume their encounter will end when summer does. But what begins as casual infidelity becomes something neither anticipated. Gurov returns to Moscow convinced he can forget the provincial woman with her little white dog. Instead, he finds himself consumed by thoughts of her. When he seeks her out in her hometown, Anna confesses the same longing has overtaken her life. Their love affair continues in secret, stolen meetings in hotel rooms across Russia. Chekhov places readers inside the consciousness of ordinary people discovering that passion can arrive uninvited at any stage of life, transforming the familiar into something strange and necessary.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: forbidden-love, secret-romance
Setting: Yalta, Russia
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
170 pages · Paperback · Createspace Independent Publishing Platform