A collection of eight of Chekhov's finest early stories.
Born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia, on the Sea of
Azov,Anton Pavlovich Chekhovwould eventually become one of Russia's
most cherished storytellers. Especially fond of vaudevilles and
French farces, he produced some hilarious one-acts, but it is his
full-length tragedies that have secured him a place among the
greatest dramatists of all time.
Chekhov began writing short stories during his days as a medical
student at the University of Moscow. After graduating in 1884 with
a degree in medicine, he began to freelance as a journalist and
writer of comic sketches. Early in his career, he mastered the form
of the one-act and produced several masterpieces of this genre
includingThe Bear(1888) in which a creditor hounds a young widow,
but becomes so impressed when she agrees to fight a duel with him,
that he proposes marriage, andThe Wedding(1889) in which a
bridegroom's plans to have a general attend his wedding ceremony
backfire when the general turns out to be a retired naval captain
'of the second rank'.
Ivanov(1887), Chekhov's first full-length play, a fairly immature
work compared to his later plays, examines the suicide of a young
man very similar to Chekhov himself in many ways. His next play,The
Wood Demon(1888) was also fairly unsuccessful. In fact, it was not
until the Moscow Art Theater production ofThe Seagull(1897) that
Chekhov enjoyed his first overwhelming success. The same play had
been performed two years earlier at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in
St. Petersburg and had been so badly received that Chekhov had
actually left the auditorium during the second act and vowed never
to write for the theatre again. But in the hands of the Moscow Art
Theatre, the play was transformed into a critical success, and
Chekhov soon realized that the earlier production had failed
because the actors had not understood their roles.
In 1899, Chekhov gave the Moscow Art Theatre a revised version of
The Wood Demon, now titledUncle Vanya(1899). Along withThe Three
Sisters(1901) andThe Cherry Orchard(1904), this play would go on to
become one of the masterpieces of the modern theatre. However,
although the Moscow Art Theatre productions brought Chekhov great
fame, he was never quite happy with the style that director
Constantin Stanislavsky imposed on the plays. While Chekhov
insisted that his plays were comedies, Stanislavsky's productions
tended to emphasize their tragic elements. Still, in spite of their
stylistic disagreements, it was not an unhappy marriage, and these
productions brought widespread acclaim to both Chekhov's work and
the Moscow Art Theatre itself.
During Chekhov's final years, he was forced to live in exile from
the intellectuals of Moscow. In March of 1897, he had suffered a
lung hemorrhaage, and although he still made occasional trips to
Moscow to participate in the productions of his plays, he was
forced to spend most of his time in the Crimea where he had gone
for his health. He died of tuberculosis on July 14, 1904, at the
age of forty-four, in a German health resort and was buried in
Moscow. Since his death, Chekhov's plays have become famous
worldwide and he has come to be considered the greatest Russian
storyteller and dramatist of modern times.
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