This is Chekhov's only novel and was written in serial form for St Petersburg newspaper when he was 24 years old. It is a steamy story of murder and betrayal on a decaying estate in provicial Russia where the local landowner, a bored and extravagant Count, organizes senseless parties to pass the time. The story is told by a dissolute magistrate, seducer of a few lonely local women, one of whom is fated to die at the shooting party...