Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought

Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought PDF Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810114609
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
First published in 1973, this collection of Chekhov's correspondence is widely regarded as the best introduction to this great Russian writer. Weighted heavily toward the correspondence dealing with literary and intellectual matters, this extremely informative collection provides fascinating insight into Chekhov's development as a writer. Michael Henry Heim's excellent translation and Simon Karlinsky's masterly headnotes make this volume an essential text for anyone interested in Chekhov.

Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought

Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought PDF Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810114609
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
First published in 1973, this collection of Chekhov's correspondence is widely regarded as the best introduction to this great Russian writer. Weighted heavily toward the correspondence dealing with literary and intellectual matters, this extremely informative collection provides fascinating insight into Chekhov's development as a writer. Michael Henry Heim's excellent translation and Simon Karlinsky's masterly headnotes make this volume an essential text for anyone interested in Chekhov.

Chekhov's Letters

Chekhov's Letters PDF Author: Carol Apollonio
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498570453
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Of the thirty volumes in the authoritative Academy edition of Chekhov's collected works, fully twelve are devoted to the writer's letters. This is the first book in English or Russian addressing this substantial—though until now neglected—epistolary corpus. The majority of the essays gathered here represent new contributions by the world's major Chekhov scholars, written especially for this volume, or classics of Russian criticism appearing in English for the first time. The introduction addresses the role of letters in Chekhov's life and characterizes the writer's key epistolary concerns. After a series of essays addressing publication history, translation, and problems of censorship, scholars analyze the letters' generic qualities that draw upon, variously, prose, poetry, and drama. Individual thematic studies focus on the letters as documents reflecting biographical, cultural, and philosophical issues. The book culminates in a collection of short, at times lyrical, essays by eminent scholars and writers addressing a particularly memorable Chekhov letter. Chekhov's Letters appeals to scholars, writers, and theater professionals, as well to a general audience.

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends; With biographical sketch

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends; With biographical sketch PDF Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3368352083
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original.

How to Write Like Chekhov

How to Write Like Chekhov PDF Author: Anton Chekhov
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0786727012
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Maxim Gorky said that no one understood -- the tragedy of life's trivialities -- as clearly as Anton Chekhov, widely considered the father of the modern short story and the modern play. Chekhov's singular ability to speak volumes with a single, impeccably chosen word, mesh comedy and pathos, and capture life's basic sadness as he entertains us, are why so many aspire to emulate him. How to Write Like Chekhov meticulously cherry-picks from Chekhov's plays, stories, and letters to his publisher, brother, and friends, offering suggestions and observations on subjects including plot and characters (and their names), descriptions and dialogue, and what to emphasize and avoid. This is a uniquely clear roadmap to Chekhov's intelligence and artistic expertise and an essential addition to the writing-guide shelf.

Dear Writer, Dear Actress

Dear Writer, Dear Actress PDF Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Letters between the playwright and the actress who eventually became his wife; chronicles love struggling against the handicap of distance and the ravages of terminal illness.

Sakhalin Island

Sakhalin Island PDF Author: Anton Chekhov
Publisher: Alma Books
ISBN: 0714545619
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
In 1890, the thirty-year-old Chekhov, already knowing that he was ill with tuberculosis, undertook an arduous eleven-week journey from Moscow across Siberia to the penal colony on the island of Sakhalin. Now collected here in one volume are the fully annotated translations of his impressions of his trip through Siberia and the account of his three-month sojourn on Sakhalin Island, together with his notes and extracts from his letters to relatives and associates.Highly valuable both as a detailed depiction of the Tsarist system of penal servitude and as an insight into Chekhov's motivations and objectives for visiting the colony and writing the expose, Sakhalin Island is a haunting work which had a huge impact both on Chekhov's career and on Russian society.

Antosha & Levitasha

Antosha & Levitasha PDF Author: Serge Vladimir Gregory
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780875807317
Category : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Antosha and Levitasha is the first book in English devoted to the complex relationship between Anton Chekhov and Isaac Levitan, one of Russia's greatest landscape painters. Outside of Russia, a general lack of familiarity with Levitan's life and art has undermined an appreciation of the cultural significance of his friendship with Chekhov. Serge Gregory's highly readable study attempts to fill that gap for Western readers by examining a friendship that may have vacillated between periods of affection and animosity, but always reflected an unwavering shared aesthetic. In Russia, where entire rooms of galleries in Moscow and St. Petersburg are devoted to Levitan's paintings, the lives of the famous writer and the equally famous artist have long been tied together. To those familiar with the work of both men, it is evident that Levitan's "landscapes of mood" have much in common with the way that Chekhov's characters perceive nature as a reflection of their emotional state. Gregory focuses on three overarching themes: the artists' similar approach to depicting landscape; their romantic and social rivalries within their circle of friends, which included many of Moscow's leading cultural figures; and the influence of Levitan's personal life on Chekhov's stories and plays. He emphasizes the facts of Levitan's life and his place in late nineteenth-century Russian art, particularly with respect to his dual loyalties to the competing Itinerant and World of Art movements. Accessible and engaging, Antosha and Levitasha will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in art history, late nineteenth-century Russian culture, and biographies.

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov PDF Author: Donald Rayfield
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571309291
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
The description 'definitive' is too easily used, but Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov merits it unhesitatingly. To quote no less an authority than Michael Frayn: 'With question the definitive biography of Chekhov, and likely to remain so for a very long time to come. Donald Rayfield starts with the huge advantage of much new material that was prudishly suppressed under the Soviet regime, or tactfully ignored by scholars. But his mastery of all the evidence, both old and new - a massive archive - is magisterial, his background knowledge of the period is huge; his Russian is sensitive to every colloquial nuance of the day, and his tone is sure. He captures a likeness of the notoriously elusive Chekhov which at last begins to seem recognisably human - and even more extraordinary.' Chekhov's life was short, he was only forty-four when he died, and dogged with ill-health but his plays and short stories assure him of his place in the literary pantheon. Here is a biography that does him full justice, in short, unapologetically to repeat that word 'definitive'. 'I don't remember any monograph by a Western scholar on a Russian author having such success. . . Nikita Mikhalkov said that before this book came out we didn't know Chekhov. . . The author doesn't invent, add or embellish anything . . . Rayfield is motivated by the Westerner's urge not ot hold information back, however grim it may be.' Anatoli Smelianski, Director of Moscow Arts Theatre School 'It is hard to imagine another book about Chekhov after this one by Donald Rayfield.' Arthur Miller, Sunday Times 'Donald Rayfield's exemplary biography draws on a daunting array of material inacessible or ignored by his predecessors.' Nikolai Tolstoy, The Literary Review 'Donald Rayfield, Chekhov's best and definitive biographer.' William Boyd, Guardian

Letters

Letters PDF Author: Anton Chekhov
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781519155771
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov's grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write. Yevgenia Morozova, Chekhov's mother, was the daughter of a cloth merchant."When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." His early years were shadowed by his father's tyranny, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, which was open from five in the morning till midnight. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog (1867-68) and Taganrog grammar school (1868-79). The family was forced to move to Moscow following his father's bankruptcy. At the age of 16, Chekhov became independent and remained for some time alone in his native town, supporting himself through private tutoring.In 1879 Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School. While in the school, he began to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support himself and his mother, sisters and brothers. His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin, owner of the St. Petersburg journal Oskolki (splinters). His subjects were silly social situations, marital problems, farcical encounters between husbands, wives, mistresses, and lovers, whims of young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge - the author was was shy with women even after his marriage. His works appeared in St. Petersburg daily papers, Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885, and Novoe vremia from 1886.Chekhov's first novel, Nenunzhaya pobeda (1882), set in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Hungarian writer Mór Jókai. As a politician Jókai was also mocked for his ideological optimism. By 1886 Chekhov had gained a wide fame as a writer. His second full-length novel, The Shooting Party, was translated into English in 1926. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926).Chekhov graduated in 1884, and practiced medicine until 1892. In 1886 Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him to become a regular contributor for the St. Petersburg daily Novoe vremya. His friendship with Suvorin ended in 1898 because of his objections to the anti-Dreyfus campaingn conducted by paper. But during these years Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgemental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion."Chekhov's fist book of stories (1886) was a success, and gradually he became a full-time writer. The author's refusal to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intellitentsia and he was criticized for dealing with serious social and moral questions, but avoiding giving answers. However, he was defended by such leading writers as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888.The failure of his play The Wood Demon (1889) and problems with his novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890 he travelled across Siberia to remote prison island, Sakhalin. There he conducted a detailed census of some 10,000 convicts and settlers condemned to live their lives on that harsh island. Chekhov hoped to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. It is probable that hard conditions on the island also worsened his own physical condition.

The Personal Papers of Anton Chekhov

The Personal Papers of Anton Chekhov PDF Author: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781410202505
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The present volume makes available the inimitable Notebook of Anton Chekhov as well as those passages from Chekhov's correspondence that reveal his innermost beliefs as a writer and a man. His lively opinions on the theatre, on stories and novels, on literary figures like Zola, Tolstoy and Gorky, the clinical detachment of Chekhov the physician always tempered by the tender concern and involvement of the artist with his people and his times, make this a lasting and universal testament. From early reviews of the Notebook of Anton Chekhov, included in this collection: "It is extraordinary how interesting these notes on human nature are... The charm of this book is that the reader has the sensation of perfectly intimate, easy intercourse with Chekhov himself. While that intercourse lasts the reader himself feels observant, gentle, disillusioned, humorous and wise." - New Statesman "The years covered by the Notebook are from 1892 to 1904, the year of Chekhov's death. The notes ranging from random jottings for plays and novels to passages of profound meditation on life and death were made for works which Chekhov intended to write. They show his methods of artistic production. The fact that he re-copied most of this material into a special copy book that shows the significance which he attached to it." - Boston Transcript "The whole is a document interesting to writers and to anyone curious about human nature... Chekhov is not a writer who sees life steadily and sees it whole; watching him at work in his kitchen we become aware that he has his favorite ingredients; they are spread out before us uncooked, undisguised with sauces." - London Times ""Affords us a very well-rounded interpretation of Chekhov." - Kenneth Burke, New York Times