My Thoughts on "Ward No. 6 and Other Stories" by Anton Chekhov as published by Barnes and Noble Classics (shown). 30 December 2023.

I finished reading "Ward No. 6 and Other Stories" by Anton Chekhov (Barnes and Noble Classics publication / collection of his stories) on 30 Dec 2023. I started it on the 23rd. I averaged about 58 pages per day on the days that I read. It was a total of approximately 353 Pages. As is my usual way of doing things, I did NOT read the introduction. Some of these stories I have already read but read them again instead of skipping over them. The general topics of the stories included: a young kid's negative view toward marriage given his experiences and observations; a young toddler's first adventure out into the world; a rich lady (princess) who is given a dressing down by a doctor who was vexed because her household let him go without any apparent reason and he unleashed what he thought of her one day when he ran into her at a monestary, an old man living in poverty who needs to get rid of his horse and dog, someone staying the night near a camp fire with a dead body to keep watch over it until the next day, a brother all wound up to go tell his sister and the man she moved in with what he thinks of that situation, a jealous husband who thinks his pretty wife is a witch, a couple random encounters with women, someone dies of typhoid fever (I wonder if one of them got it from Count Fosco of "The Woman in White!! could be!), a ferry-boat operator who gets no rest, and a concern that the world is ending, a cheating wife, living in siberia, antisemitism / the life of a coffin maker miser, how the past is connected with the present, a woman's need to give her love to someone at all times, factories and society, the search for happiness (that idea is found in a few of the stories actually), a fleeting affair with a married lady, arranged marriages, the idea that it's lonely at the top, and the title story Ward No. 6 is a cynical view of the mental health system.

I read the stories in order, however, saved the title story Ward No. 6 to read last (they put that one in the middle somewhere). I am glad I did because it was a cynical view of the mental health system. It seems that has been the theme of the last three books I am reading for 2023: "The Woman in White" involved the abuse of the mental health system by putting someone in there for purposes other than mental health treatment (don't want to be a spoiler); and the next book I am reading is 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'. I saved it to the last because it was the title one and because it was the longest of the stories in the book. It was worthy of being the featured title I think as well.

The stories are well written and easy to read and as you can see from the above, have a wide variety of topics / ideas. I am not going to rank the stories or pick favorites; I found them enjoyable. There are some interesting characters in there and certainly some interesting relationship dynamics. If you think the topics are of interest to you, I would predict that you will find these stories enjoyable as well.

Some Questions Inspired by my Reading of Them: