How to Write Like Chekhov

Chekhov never belonged to any political movement. He was not the type, according to Vladimir Nabokov, because he "believed that the first thing needed was justice, and all his life he raised his voice against every kind of injustice; but he did it as a writer. Chekhov was in the first place an individualist and an artist."²⁵ Nabokov's observation helps explain why Chekhov's advice on writing is at the same time advice on living. Chekhov insists on "painting life as it is" and not "lying to oneself." Truth and honesty are at the very basis of good writing, because they are the basis of personal behavior and political action. No "radiant future," no "love for the future," can justify falsehood, as Chekhov wrote in a letter to his editor Suvorin.²⁶

Chekhov's response to the Dreyfus Affair of 1894 epitomizes this moral integrity. He found that events in France had taken "an ugly turn toward the terrain of anti-Semitism, a terrain that stinks of slaughter." He admired Йmile Zola because the French naturalist based his judgment only "on what he sees, and not, like others, on phantoms." Chekhov believed that when something inside us is amiss, "we seek the causes outside ourselves and before long we find them: it's the French who are making a mess, it's the Yids, it's Wil- helm. . . . Capitalism, the bogeyman, the Masons, the syndicate, the Jesuits—they may be nothing but phantoms, but do they ever lighten our troubled conscience!" As far as Chekhov was concerned, even if Alfred Dreyfus had been guilty and Zola had been in error, their culpability would still be less dangerous, because stemming from sincerity, than actions prompted by "deliberate insincerity, prejudice, or political considerations."²⁷

Chekhov did not believe in the moral authority of intellectuals, political parties, the press, or the intelligentsia as a whole. He did have faith in individuals. "I see salvation in individuals scattered here and there, all over Russia, be they intellectuals or peasants makes no difference, for the real power is in them, no matter how few there may be. No man is a prophet in his own land; and the individuals of whom I speak play an imperceptible role in their society. They are not dominant, but their work is visible."²⁸

The individual he admired exercised freedom, whatever the price. When Chekhov's brother Alexander began publishing, the author gave him the following counseclass="underline" "By saying, 'I don't like this!' you have already affirmed your independence and even utility."²⁹ He saw no need for the "private, professional, clubby solidarity" of intellectuals. Instead, he admired the free, unallied intellectual. In a statement that has since been taken as his profession of faith, Chekhov proclaimed, "I look upon labels and tags as prejudices. My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom— freedom from violence and falsehood, whatever forms the latter two might take. This is the program to which I would adhere were I a great artist."³⁰

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FOR FURTHER READING

The reader may wish to explore the following sources:

Chekhov's Letters

Chekhov, Anton. A Life in Letters. Edited by Rosamund Bartlett. Translated by Rosamund Bartlett and Anthony Phillips (New York: Penguin, 2004).

Chekhov, Anton. Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with Biographical Sketch. Edited by Constance Garnett (New York: Macmillan, 1920). Available through the Project Gut- tenberg Literary Archive Foundation at: http://www.gutenberg .net/etext/6408.

Chekhov, Anton, and Olga Knipper. The Love Letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper. Edited and translated by Jean Benedetti (London: Methuen, 2007).

Friedland, Louis, editor and translator. Letters on the Short Story, the Drama, and Other Literary Topics by Anton Chekhov (New York: B. Blom, 1964).

Garnett, Constance, editor and translator. The Letters of Anton Pavlovitch Tchehov to Olga Leonardovna Knipper (London: Chatto & Windus, 1926).

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Hellman, Lillian, editor and introduction. The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov. Translated by Sidonie K. Lederer (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1984).

Karlinsky, Simon, editor and introduction. Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. Translated by Michael Henry Heim and Simon Karlinsky (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).

Koteliansky, S. S., and Philip Tomlinson, editors and translators. The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov (New York: George H. Doran, 1925).

McVay, Gordon, editor and translator. Chekhov: A Life in Letters (London: Folio Society, i994).

Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, selector and editor. Letters of Anton Chekhov (New York: Harper & Row, i973).

About Chekhov

Callow, Philip. Chekhov, The Hidden Ground: A Biography (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, i998).

Chukovsky, Kornej. Chekhov: The Man (New York: Hutchin- son, i945).

Clayton, J. Douglas, editor. Chekhov Then and Now: The Reception of Chekhov in World Culture (New York: Peter Lang, i997).

Gerhardie, William A. Anton Chekhov: A Critical Study (London: Duckworth, i928).

Gorky, Maxim. Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev (New York: Farrar, Straus, i955).

Jackson, Robert Louis, editor. Chekhov: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967).

Maegd-Soкp, Carolina de. Chekhov and Women: Women in the Life and Work of Chekhov (Columbus, Ohio: Slavica, 1987).

Magarshack, David. Chekhov: A Life (New York: Grove Press,

1953).

Matlaw, Ralph E. Anton Chekhov's Short Stories: Texts of the Stories, Backgrounds, Criticism (New York: Norton, 1979).

Pritchett, V. S. Chekhov: A Spirit Set Free (New York: Random House, 1988).

Rayfield, Donald. Anton Chekhov: A Life (New York: Henry Holt, 1998).

Simmons, Ernest J. Chekhov: A Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1962).

Toumanova, Nina A. Chekhov: The Voice of Twilight Russia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937).

Troyat, Henri. Chekhov (New York: Dutton, 1986). Winner, Thomas. Chekhov and His Prose (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966).

Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, translator and introduction. The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings (New York: Minerva Press, 1954).

Cultural Background