Chekhov’s art is delicately poised between the achievements of nineteenth-century Russian realism and the abstraction and experimentation of the twentieth century. In his work we see a movement away from the large form, towards an increasingly poetic orientation towards the word and organization of the text. Such artistic movements as impressionism and the decorativeness of art nouveau find echoes in different stories. His world is not one in which there are easily discovered universal truths. Each grain of insight, each transcendental moment has to be earned at great cost, and the author unceasingly and mercilessly reminds us of its ephemeral nature. At the end of the day, there is a hard-hearted kindness in his work that refuses easy answers and comforting half-truths. To read his works with the insight they demand, and to learn to see the world with the courage with which he depicts it, is one of the most rewarding journeys literature has to offer.
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.: Northwestern 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
‘The Black Monk’
Paul Debreczeny, ‘“The Black Monk”: Chekhov’s Version of Symbolism’, in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 179–88.
‘The Grasshopper’
George Pahomov, ‘Čexov’s “The Grasshopper”: A Secular Saint’s Life’, Slavic and East European Journal 37:1 (Spring 1993), pp. 33–45.
‘The Student’
Robert Louis Jackson, ‘Chekhov’s “The Student”’, in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 127–33.
‘Ward No. 6’
Andrew R. Durkin, ‘Chekhov’s Response to Dostoevskii: The Case of “Ward Six” ’, Slavic Review 40:1 (1981), pp. 49–59.
‘A Woman’s Kingdom’
Carol A. Flath, ‘Delineating the Territory of Cechov’s “A Woman’s Kingdom” ’, Russian Literature 44:4 (1998), pp. 389–408.
Robert Louis Jackson, ‘Chekhov’s “A Woman’s Kingdom”: A Drama of Character and Fate’, in Thomas A. Eekman (ed.), Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989), pp. 91–102.
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