An average student, Chekhov reportedly learned far more from his gifted mother, whose compelling stories interested him in storytelling at an early age. Considered the "father" of the modern short story and the modern play, The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories includes early Chekhov stories of note including "Oysters," "Vanka" and the lyrical "A Day in the Country." Translator Constance Garnett was a contemporary of Chekhov's, and while her translations of other nineteenth-century Russian authors have sometimes been faulted, her carefully-chosen translations provide near-contemporary English versions of Chekhov's elegant language and incomparable imagery.