Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a person.
References
2018
- (Wikipedia, 2018) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov Retrieved:2018-5-3.
- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January 1860 [1] – 15 July 1904) [2] 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. [3] [4] 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. [5] 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.” [6] 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 [7] as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text". [8] Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. [9] 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. [10]
- ↑ Old Style date 17 January.
- ↑ Old Style date 2 July.
- ↑ "Greatest short story writer who ever lived.” Raymond Carver (in Rosamund Bartlett's introduction to About Love and Other Stories, XX); "Quite probably. the best short-story writer ever.” A Chekhov Lexicon, by William Boyd, The Guardian, 3 July 2004. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
- ↑ "Stories ... which are among the supreme achievements in prose narrative.” Vodka miniatures, belching and angry cats, George Steiner's review of The Undiscovered Chekhov, in The Observer, 13 May 2001. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
- ↑ Harold Bloom, Genius: A Study of One Hundred Exemplary Authors.
- ↑ Letter to Alexei Suvorin, 11 September 1888. Letters of Anton Chekhov. On Wikiquote.
- ↑ "Actors climb up Chekhov like a mountain, roped together, sharing the glory if they ever make it to the summit". Actor Ian McKellen, quoted in Miles, 9.
- ↑ "Chekhov's art demands a theatre of mood.” Vsevolod Meyerhold, quoted in Allen, 13; "A richer submerged life in the text is characteristic of a more profound drama of realism, one which depends less on the externals of presentation.” Styan, 84.
- ↑ "Chekhov is said to be the father of the modern short story". ; "He brought something new into literature.” James Joyce, in Arthur Power, Conversations with James Joyce, Usborne Publishing Ltd, 1974, , 57; "Tchehov's breach with the classical tradition is the most significant event in modern literature", John Middleton Murry, in Athenaeum, 8 April 1922, cited in Bartlett's introduction to About Love.
- ↑ "You are right in demanding that an artist should take an intelligent attitude to his work, but you confuse two things: solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist.” Letter to Suvorin, 27 October 1888. Letters of Anton Chekhov.