"Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress"
A. P. Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a Russian writer. Today he is most famous as a master of short stories and plays. He was born in 1860 in Taganrog, Ukraine. At the age of 16 the family moved to Moscow. After he had finished the school, Chekhov enrolled in the Moscow University Medicine School. At the same time, to help the family, he started to write short comic stories about the life of the Russian village. However, he didn't use his name; instead, he had a pseudonym Antosha Chekhonte, that sounds rather familiar with his name. Chekhov became famous; his stories were published by several St. Petersburg papers, such as "Novoe Vremya" (New Time). In 1884 he graduated from the Medical School. He practices and writes at the same time. However, after a fiasco with the play "The Wood Demon", he stopped to write and traveled to the east of Siberia to practice as the doctor. In 1892 he returned back, bought a house in a village Melichovo (not far from Moscow) and became a "full-time" writer. During this period of life he wrote such famous pieces as "The Man in a Shell", "Lady with the Dog", "Uncle Vanya", "Ward #6", and others.
There is one special
thing about the literature of Chekhov There is no critical social commentary
in his works. He developed his own style of dispassionate, non-judgmental
author. Though some other authors could't accept this style, there were others,
who praised him. Among them were famous Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov. He died at the age of 44 because of tuberculosis. He did a lot to develop Russian literature. Today it is really hard to imagine Russian literature without Chekhov. His works had a great impact on literature in ninetienth- twentieth centuries. His plays are part of repertoire of theaters all over the world. To end I want with the quote of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov as it shows what kind of men he was: "Take care of a human inside you".
An introduction to Anton Chekhov
Kseniya,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog! i loved your illustrations (like the Cherry Orchard one) and the interesting facts about Chekhov. I knew he was a doctor, but I had forgotten until you reminded me. Love your ideas about the bicycle and Varinka, too. Your conversations between you and your avatar show excellent dialectical thinking!
Ms. Patton