Chekhov's stories present multiple versions of a simple scenario: anything could happen. One day, at random, anywhere, the ordinary life of servitude is pierced by an apparition: freedom is there, in the distance, beckoning and indicating that another life is possible, one in which we know why we live. Most, however, shun the call. They prefer that nothing happen. But Chekhov doesn't give up. He persists in accompanying his characters to those places where their lives could be turned upside down. From story to story, he weaves this time driven by the relentless machine of reproduction, but which, from pause to pause, tears itself apart and unfolds into the time of a supposed freedom that refuses to end, but remains a suspended possibility. We could call this a politics of literature.

From the hand of one of the great European thinkers, this book opens up new and fascinating readings of the Russian writer's work.