Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was
a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be among the
greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright
produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by
writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is
often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early
modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most
of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said,
"and literature is my mistress."
Chekhov wrote about ordinary events and the relationships of
people in small towns and villages. He employed a variety of techniques,
including pacing and word choices that paint imagery, create his characters and
reveal their changing moods. His style, in stories such as, “The Lady with the
Little Dog,” and “The Huntsman,” built a new literary form that was described
as impressionistic by other writers of his time. Chekhov noted six principles
of a good story.
- Absence of lengthy verbiage of a political-social-economic nature
- Total objectivity
- Truthful descriptions of persons and objects
- Extreme brevity
- Audacity and originality: flee the stereotype
- Compassion
Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The
Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin
Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's
Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry
Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as
to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a
"theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text".
Chekhov had at first written stories to earn money, but as
his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced
the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the
difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to
ask questions, not to answer them.
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