The Pragmatics of Insignificance: Chekhov, Zoshchenko, Gogol (Studies of the Harriman Institute)

What makes a tale worth telling? When is a detail significant and when extraneous? And how much irrelevant detail can a reader take in stride? This book addresses tellability by looking at texts that raise the question themselves, works by Chekhov, Zoshchenko, and Gogol.