I recently finished listening to an audio version of Anton Chekhov’s short story, Kashtanka (I listened to this excellent version ).   In short, the story is about a little dog who is abandoned by his drunk owner, a carpenter, and found by a circus-performer who treats him much better but trains him to perform on the stage with other animals. After finishing it, I didn’t particularly “get” the story. This happens to me sometimes. I really enjoy almost every Chekhov story I read or listen to, but sometimes I don’t “understand the meaning.” (This happened with A Dead Body , too).  Anyway, I went onto read this analysis of Kashtanka , which I think is probably right – that the story is sort of autobiographical and descriptive of Chekhov’s views on the difference between being a commercial artist (i.e., one primarily concerned with making art to earn money) and an artist who makes art for art’s sake.  The carpenter, who beats and torments you, represents the life of pure art, and the circ