Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Essential Short Story Reading

The short story is a cross between poetry and prose. Its best writers possess the skills of both writing styles. Chekhov was such a writer. His short stories provide a revealing glimpse of pre-Bolshevik-Revolution Russia, which in many ways doesn't seem to have changed much: stark, gray, cold, dysfunctional. He was able to sculpt three-dimensional characters, scene-scapes, and storylines that cause emotional reaction in readers. To read Chekhov is to feel.While I found myself distracted by the Russian character names, the aging writing style, and my ambivalence toward short fiction, it's impossible to read these stories without great appreciation for the man's talent and his contribution to America's understanding of Russian culture and the world of literature in general. This collection is a good way to say, "Yeah, I've read Chekhov." --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.