Letters of Anton Chekhov. Tr. Michael Henry Heim in collab- oration with Simon Karlinsky. Selection, Commentary and Introduction by Simon Karlinsky (New York, 1973).
Letters of Anton Chekhov. Selected and edited by A vrahm Yarmolinsky (New York, 1973).
T. Eekman, ed., Anton Chekhov, i86o-ig6o (Leiden, 1960).
Ronald Hingley, Chekhov: A Biographical and Critical Study (London, 1950).
A New Life of Anton Chekhov (London, 1976); also, the
same in paperback, A Life of Anton Chekhov (Oxford, 1989).
Robert Louis Jackson, ed., Chekhov: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1967).
Karl D. Kramer, The Chameleon and the Dream: The Image of Reality in Cexov's Stories (The Hague, 1970).
Virginia Llewellyn Smith, Anton Chekhov and the Lady with the Dog. Foreword by Ronald Hingley (London, 1973).
A CHRONOLOGY OF ANTON CHEKHOV
All dates are given old style.
l86o 16 or 17 January. Born in Taganrog, a port on the Sea of
Azov in south Russia.
1876 His father goes bankrupt. The family moves to Moscow,
leaving Anton to finish his schooling.
Joins family and enrols in the Medical Faculty of Moscow
University.
Begins to contribute to Strekoza ('Dragonfly'), a St Petersburg comic weekly.
1882 Starts to write short stories and a gossip column for
Oskolki ('Splinters') and to depend on writing for an income.
1884 Graduates in medicine. Shows early symptoms of tuber-
culosis.
1885--6 Contributes to Peterburgskaya gazeta ('St Petersburg Gazette') and Novoye vremya ('New Time').
March. Letter from D. V. Grigorovich encourages him to take writing seriously.
First collection of stories: Motley Stories.
Literary reputation grows fast. Second collection of stories: In the Twilight.
19 November. First Moscow performance of Ivanov: mixed reception.
First publication (The Steppe) in a serious literary journal, Severny vestnik ('The Northern Herald').
3 I January. First St Petersburg performance of Ivanov: widely and favourably reviewed.
June. Death of brother Nicholas from tuberculosis.
April-December. Crosses Siberia to visit the penal settle- ment on Sakhalin Island. Returns via Hong Kong, Singapore, and Ceylon.
A CH RONOLOG Y OF ANTON CHEKIIOV xvii
18191 First trip to western Europe: Italy and France.
1892 March. Moves with family to small country cstate at
Melikhovo, 50 miles south of Moscow.
1
1895 First meeting with Tolstoy.
1896 17 October. First—disastrous-performance of The Sea-
gull in St Petersburg.
[897 Suffers severe haemorrhage.
1897-8 Winters in France. Champions Zola's defence of Dreyfus.
Beginning of collaboration with the newly founded Moscow Art Theatre. Meets Olga Knipper. Spends the winter in Yalta, where he meets Gorky.
17 Decemher. First Moscow Art Theatre performance of The Seagull: successful.
Completes the building of a house in Yalta, where he settles with mother and sister.
26 October. First performance by Moscow An Theatre of Uncle Vanya (written ?i896).
1899-1901 First collected edition of his works (10 volumes).
1901 j 1 January. Three Sisiers fim performed.
25 May. Marries Olga Knipper.
1904 17 January. First performance of The Cherry Orchard.
2 July. Dies in Badenweiler, Germany.
THE STEPPE
THE STORY OF A JOURNEY I
On an early July morning a dilapidated springless carriage—one of those antediluvian britzkas now used in Russia only by merchants' clerks, cattle-dealers and poor priests^^rove out of N., a sizeable townwn in Z. County, and thundered along the post road. It rumbled and squeaked at the slightest movement, to the doleful accompaniment of a pail tied to the back-board. These sounds alone, and the wretched leather tatters flapping on the peeling chassis, showedjust how decrepit, how fit for the scrap heap it was.
Two residents of N. occupied the britzka. One was Ivan Kuzmichov, a clean-shaven, bespectacled merchant in a straw hat, who looked more like a civil servant than a trader. The other was Father Christo- pher Siriysky, principal priest at St. Nicholas's Church—a short, long-haired old man wearing a grey canvas caftan, a broad-brimmed top hat and a brightly embroidered belt. The former was absorbed in his thoughts, and kept tossing his head to keep himself awake. On his face a habitual businesslike reserve was in conflict with the cheerfulness of one who has just said good-bye to his family and had a drop to drink. The other man gazed wonderingly at God's world with moist eyes and a smile so broad that it cven seemed to take in his hat brim. His face was red, as if from cold. Both Kuzmichov and Father Christo- pher were on their way to sell wool. They had just been indulging in cream doughnuts while taking farewell of their households, and they had had a drink despite the early hour. Both were in excellent humour.
Besides the two already described, and the coachman Deniska tire- lessly whipping his pair of frisky bay horses, the (^mage had another occupant: a boy of nine with a sunb^nt, tear-stained face. This was Kuzmichov's nephew Yegorushka. With his uncle's permission and Father Christopher's bletting he was on his way to a school of the type intended for gentlemen's sons. His mother Olga—Kuzmichov's sister and widow of a minor official—adored educated people and refined society, and she had begged her brother to take the boy on his wool- selling trip and deliver him to this institution. Understanding neither where he was going nor why, the boy sat on the box by Deniska's side, holding the man's elbow to stop himself falling, and bobbing about like a kettle on the hob. The swift pace made his red shirt balloon at the back, and his new coachman-style hat with the peacock feather kept slipping to the back of his neck. He considered himself extremely unfortunate, and was ncar to tears.
As they drove past the prison Ycgorushka looked at the sentries slowly pacing ncar the high white wall, at the small barred windows, at the cross glittering on the roof, and remembered the day of Our Lady of Kazan, a week earlier, when he and his mother had attended the celebrations at the prison church. Before that he had visited the gaol at Easter with Dcniska and Lyudmila the cook, taking Easter cakes, Easter eggs, pies and roast beeЈ The convicts had thanked them and crossed themselves, and one had given the boy some tin studs of his own manufacture.
While the boy gazed at the familiar sights the hateful carriage raced on and left them all behind. Beyond the prison black, smoke-stained forges flashed past, and then the tranquil green cemetery with the stone wall round it. From behind the wall cheerful white crosses and tombstones peeped out, nestling in the foliage of cherry trees and seen as white patches from a distance. At blossom time, Ycgorushka remembered, the white patches mingled with the cherry blooms in a sea of white, and when the cherries had ripened the white tombs and crosses were crimson-spotted, as if with blood. Under the cherries behind the wall the boy's father and his grandmother Zinaida slept day and night. When Grandmother had died she had been put in a long, narrow coffin, and fivc-copcck pieces had been placed on her eyes, which would not stay shut. Before dying she had been alive, and she had brought him soft poppy-seed bun rings from the market, but now she just slept and slept.