Note-Book of Anton Chekhov, Trans. S. S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf, available at: http:llwww.gutenberg.orgletextl 124.94-8.txt.
Chapter One
Chekhov picks up the metaphors that Gorky uses to describe his literary credentials in a letter from early January 1899: "I am as dumb as a locomotive. Since I was ten I've been on my own. I've had no time for studies; I've done nothing but devour life and work, and meanwhile life's been beating me up and fired my engines and gave me a push—and now, here I am, tearing along at a mad pace. But I've got no rails to run on, and though I see life in a fresh, powerful way, I don't know how to think and so expect I'm headed for disaster.... Maybe my nose won't hit the ground quite yet, but even if it should, I'm not afraid and I'm not sorry." [L.L.]
In promoting Chekhov's writings and bringing out collections of his stories, Suvorin, an influential man of letters, was in many ways the force behind Chekhov's popularity. The two met in 1885, became close friends, and even traveled abroad together in 1891 and 1894. Contemporaries marveled at the union of polar opposites represented by the friendship of two men with radically divergent political views. One observer, Dmitry S. Merezhkovsky, quipped, "The devil took up with the infant." [L.L.]
Viktor Burenin, the editor of New Times (Novoye Vremya), gave Chekhov's "The Steppe" a favorable review. A "breakthrough" experimental work, this novella tells the experiences and perceptions of a nine-year-old boy crossing the steppe on his way to boarding school. [L.L.]
In October 1888, the Imperial Academy of Sciences awarded Chekhov the prestigious Pushkin Prize for Literature for his collection In the Twilight. [L.L.]
Chekhov wrote "An Attack of Nerves" ("Pripadok") in 1888 for an anthology commemorating his friend and admirer Vsevolod Garshin, a talented young writer who had committed suicide. Alexei Pleshcheyev, a prominent political exile and civic poet, was editor of the journal Northern Herald (Severnii Vestnik), in which Chekhov published a number of stories. Dmitry Grig- orovich used his considerable prestige and literary influence to promote Chekhov's stories among key editors and critics. As a venerable elder, he carried on the distinctly Russian tradition of passing on the baton of literary "election" to the worthiest representative of the new writers. His recognition did much to help Chekhov take his own talent seriously. [L.L.]
Dmitry Petrovich Golitsyn, a minor talent who wrote under the pseudonym Muravlin, published a number of stories and novels about the aristocracy. [L.L.]
Lydia Avilova was a prolific writer and memoirist whose relationship with Chekhov, whom she met in St. Petersburg, remains unclear. Married with children, she had little physical contact with the writer—eight brief encounters in a decade—but made much of them in her reminiscences of their friendship. [L.L.]
The talented artist Alexandra Khotyaintseva visited Chekhov's cottage in Melikhovo and charmed him with her sketches and portraits. He invited her to visit him in Nice, where she took up residence in his Russian hotel and amused him with caricatures of its residents. [L.L.]
Chekhov lived, worked, and entertained in Melikhovo, south of Moscow, between 1860 and 1904. In 1892, after his return from Sakhalin, he bought an estate, where his entire family settled, and wrote some of his most memorable works, including his plays, in this delightful rural retreat. Generous with his time, energy, and funds, he constructed model schools in three villages, served as a member of the local administrative organization, the zemstvo, and in all ways became an exemplar of civic consciousness. This public role did not prevent him, however, from acting the generous host to countless friends, associates, admirers, and hangers-on. [L.L.]
The "thick journals" (tolstye zhurnaly), two-hundred-plus- page periodicals, were the cultural lifeline of imperial Russia. Compendia of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, criticism, and articles on everything from philosophy to agronomy, these monthlies, which were distributed by subscription and by book dealers, furnished topics for endless debate. Among the most influential nineteenth-century thick journals were Herald of Europe (Vestnik Evropy), Library for Reading (Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya), Notes of the Fatherland (Otechestvennye Zapiski), The Contemporary (Sovre- mennik), Russian Messenger (Russkiy Vestnik), and Russian Thought (Russkaya Mysl'). [L.L.]
"Perepiska A. P. Chekhova" ("Pis'ma Chekhova"), no. 2850, p. 137, available at: http://www.dushu.com.ua/.
The Northern Herald (Severniy Vestnik) was a liberal thick journal published in St. Petersburg from 1885 to 1898. [L.L.]
The St. Petersburg New Times (Novoye Vremya), the largest newspaper in Russia, was owned by Alexei Suvorin, who was also its editor in chief. Pro-government, right-wing, and not infrequently anti-Semitic and reactionary, the paper nevertheless embraced an enlightened cultural policy and did much to nurture the talents of young writers. [L.L.]
Ignaty Nikolaevich Potapenko (1826-1929) was an overrated writer of fiction and plays, including The General's Daughter (1892), to which Chekhov here alludes. [L.L.]
Maria Kiselyova was one of the many cultivated, accomplished women whom Chekhov, a man not indifferent to female intelligence and beauty, playfully courted during his protracted bachelorhood. An accomplished writer, Kiselyova often turned to Chekhov for advice. [L.L.]
In "The Black Monk" ("Chornyj monakh") (1894), Chekhov offers a luminous exploration of a Romantic clichй—the psychopathological creative genius. Informed by contemporary
medical science, the story is prescient in its exploration of sociological and ecological issues. [L.L.]
Chekhov's youngest brother, Mikhail Pavlovich. [L.L.]
Alexei Suvorin's first wife, Anna Ivanovna Suvorina (neй Baranova, 1840-74) was a talented writer and a translator of, among others, Jules Verne. His second wife was also Anna Ivanovna (1858-1936). [L.L.]
Eugene Onegin (Evgeniy Onegin, 1833), A. S. Pushkin's novel in verse, and Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1877) became instant classics and set the bar for aesthetic virtuosity when they appeared. [L.L.]
The provisional title of this novel was "Stories from the Lives of My Friends." After two years of work, Chekhov decided to destroy the manuscript, fearing that it would never get by the censor. [L.L.]
Elena Shavrova, a friend of Chekhov's sister Maria, developed a fierce crush on the writer as an adolescent. For many years Chekhov appointed himself her reader, critic, tutor, editor, and "agent." In his letters, he addressed her as "Most esteemed colleague" and signed himself "Cher maitre." [L.L.]
Syphilis is the topic in question. [L.L.]
The Pushkin Prize; see n. 4. [L.L.]
With its subtle echoes of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and muted satirical sketches, "The Name Day Party" ("Imeniny," 1888) was one of Chekhov's most brilliant "clinical" stories of the late 1880s and early 1890s. [L.L.]
Lazarev-Gruzinsky's reminiscences recall Chekhov's help with publishing his stories, his love of mushrooming, and his wicked sense of humor. [L.L.]
Anna Mikhailovna Evreinova (1844-?) would become editor of the St. Petersburg journal Northern Herald in 1889-90. [L.L.]
27. Ieronim Ieronimovich Yasinsky (1850-1930) was a minor writer of shifting loyalties and wildly fluctuating political affiliations who wrote under the pseudonyms M. Chunosov and Maksim Belinsky. Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin (1852-1912) wrote novels about life in the Urals under the pseudonym Mamin- Sibiryak. Nikolay Fedotovich Bazhin (1843-1908) was a mildly successful, derivative novelist and chronicler of contemporary life in the manner of "sober realism." [L.L.]