FURTHER READING
Gordon McVay (tr.), Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters (London: Folio Society, 1994), the best selection and translation of letters.
Brian Reeves (tr.), The Island of Sakhalin (Cambridge: Ian Faulkner, 1993).
SECONDARY LITERATURE: GENERAL BOOKS
Toby W. Clyman, A Chekhov Companion (Westport/London: Greenwood Press, 1985), a very valuable if expensive collection of essays, with extensive bibliography.
P. Debreczeny and T. Eekman (eds), Chekhov’s Art of Writing: A Collection of Critical Essays (Columbus: Slavica, 1977).
Thomas Eekman (ed.), Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989), 208 pp.
W. Gerhardie, Anton Chekhov: A Critical Study (London: Macdonald, 1974), ‘Bloomsbury’ Chekhov, but well-informed.
R. L. Jackson, Chekhov: A Collection of Essays: 20th-Century Views (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967).
R. L. Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: North-western University Press, 1993).
S. Koteliansky (tr., ed.), Anton Chekhov: Literary and Theatrical Reminiscences (New York: Blom, 1968).
Virginia Llewellyn-Smith, Chekhov and the Lady with the Little Dog (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).
V. S. Pritchett, Chekhov. A Spirit Set Free (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988).
Donald Rayfield, Anton Chekhov: A Life (London: HarperCollins, 1997).
T. Winner, Chekhov and his Prose (New York: Holt, 1966).
WORKS ON INDIVIDUAL STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
‘A Dreary Story’
Shoshana Knapp, ‘Herbert Spencer in Čexov’s “Skucnaja istorija” and “Duel”: The Love of Science and the Science of Love’, Slavic and East European Journal 29:3 (Fall 1985), pp. 279–96.
‘The Duel’
Andrew Durkin, ‘Allusion and Dialogue in “The Duel” ’ in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 169–78.
‘Gusev’
Milton Ehre, ‘The Symbolic Structure of Chekhov’s “Gusev” ’, Ulbandus Review, New York, 2:1 (Fall 1979), pp. 76–85.
‘The Kiss’
Nathan Rosen, ‘The Life Force in Chekhov’s “The Kiss” ’, Ulbandus Review, New York, 2:1 (Fall 1979), pp. 175–85.
‘The Steppe’
Martina Bjorklund, Narrative Strategies in Čechov’s ‘The Steppe’: Cohesion, Grounding and Point of View, Turku, 1993.
Jerome H. Katsell, ‘Čexov’s “The Steppe” Revisited’, Slavic and East European Journal 22 (1978), pp. 313–23.
‘Verochka’
Joseph Conrad, ‘Čexov’s “Verocka”: A Polemical Parody’, Slavic and East European Journal 14 (1970), pp. 465–74.
CHRONOLOGY
1836
Gogol’s The Government Inspector
1852
Turgenev’s Sketches from a Hunter’s Album
1860
Dostoyevsky’s Notes From the House of the Dead (1860–61) Anton Pavlovich Chekhov born on 17 January at Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov, the third son of Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, a grocer, and Yevgeniya Yakovlevna, née Morozova
1861
Emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II. Formation of revolutionary Land and Liberty Movement
1862
Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons
1863
4 Polish revolt. Commencement of intensive industrialization; spread of the railways; banks established; factories built. Elective District Councils (zemstvos) set up; judicial reform Tolstoy’s The Cossacks (1863)
1865
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1864) by Leskov, a writer much admired by Chekhov
1866
Attempted assassination of Alexander II by Karakozov Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment
1867
Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin
1868
Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot
1868
Chekhov begins to attend Taganrog Gymnasium after wasted year at a Greek school
1869
Tolstoy’s War and Peace
1870
Municipal government reform
1870–71 Franco-Prussian War
1873
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1873–7) Chekhov sees local productions of Hamlet and Gogol’s The Government Inspector
1875
Chekhov writes and produces humorous magazine for his brothers in Moscow, The Stammerer, containing sketches of life in Taganrog
1876
Chekhov’s father declared bankrupt and flees to Moscow, followed by family except Chekhov, who is left in Taganrog to complete schooling. Reads Buckle, Hugo and Schopenhauer
1877–8 War with Turkey
1877
Chekhov’s first visit to Moscow; his family living in great hardship
1878
Chekhov writes dramatic juvenilia: full-length drama Father-lessness (MS destroyed), comedy Diamond Cut Diamond and vaudeville Why Hens Cluck (none published)
1879
Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1879–80). Tolstoy’s Confession (1879–82) Chekhov matriculates from Gymnasium with good grades. Wins scholarship to Moscow University to study medicine Makes regular contributions to humorous magazine Alarm Clock
1880
General Loris-Melikov organizes struggle against terrorism Guy de Maupassant’s Boule de Suif Chekhov introduced by artist brother Nikolay to landscape painter Levitan with whom has lifelong friendship First short story, ‘A Letter from the Don Landowner Vladimirovich N to His Learned Neighbour’, published in humorous magazine Dragonfly. More stories published in Dragonfly under pseudonyms, chiefly Antosha Chekhonte
1881
Assassination of Alexander II; reactionary, stifling regime of Alexander III begins Sarah Bernhardt visits Moscow (Chekhov calls her acting ‘superficial’) Chekhov continues to write very large numbers of humorous sketches for weekly magazines (until 1883). Becomes regular contributor to Nikolay Leykin’s Fragments, a St Petersburg weekly humorous magazine. Writes (1881–2) play now usually known as Platonov (discovered 1923), rejected by Maly Theatre; tries to destroy manuscript
1882
Student riots at St Petersburg and Kazan universities. More discrimination against Jews Chekhov is able to support the family with scholarship money and earnings from contributions to humorous weeklies