Fat and Thin cover art

Fat and Thin

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Fat and Thin

By: Anton Chekhov
Narrated by: Kenneth Branagh
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About this listen

This is a story from the In the Ravine and Other Stories collection.

Anton Chekhov, one of the finest masters of what is acknowledged as a difficult genre. There is the richly comic "Oh! The Public" about a hassled ticket inspector, a wry look at morals and manners in "The Chorus Girl", and the melancholic tale of a cab driver in "Misery".

Perhaps the finest of all is the novella "In The Ravine", a minutely observed look at life in a village through the eyes of one family. All the characters come to life with their foibles, their strengths, and their hopes. Kenneth Branagh uses his natural talent for characterisation to bring this village to life.

The other short stories in this collection are: "The Trousseau", "A Story Without a Title", "Children", "Fat and Thin", "The Beggar", "Hush!", "The Orator", and "An Actor's End".

Public Domain (P)2002 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Short Story Village

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Editor reviews

Acclaimed actor Kenneth Branagh's voice is wonderfully flexible. It shrinks and expands, puffs up and stretches out to fit the characters in this short story by Anton Chekhov. Two old friends come across each other at a station, one fat and one thin. With Branagh's masterful performance, listeners can easily imagine the appearance of the characters in the story, practically seeing the expressions on the friends' faces as their relationship changes over a span of a few sentences. Branagh controls the shift in mood expertly, and listeners will likely recognize something of themselves and others in this revealing encounter.

Critic reviews

"If you want an outstanding reading, in which the narrator's voice brilliantly conveys the speaker's class and the intricate relationships between characters during conversations, you can do no better than to listen to Kenneth Branagh. This great actor mesmerizes as he gasps, chuckles, stutters, and declaims. A must listen." ( AudioFile)
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