He might have become one of the greatest fictional portraitists of the human condition but he only began writing in earnest in order to earn extra cash, selling jokes and vignettes to newspapers and periodicals rather than feverishly scribbling away at gigantic novels.Įven when he died at a Black Forest health spa in 1904 after many years of ill health there was no grand ceremony, despite his fame. He never fought a duel, didn’t become a spiritual guru living a life of conspicuous abstinence and certainly didn’t emerge from the privileged ranks of the nobility (his father was a bankrupt grocer). If his work didn’t fit neatly among that of his contemporaries, Chekhov himself was a very different character from the other great pre-revolution writers in Russia. Not only that, he changed both the theatre and the art of the short story forever. It was an original approach that may have baffled some, but Chekhov went on to become one of the most influential writers in world literature. The artist should not be a judge of his characters or what they say, but an impartial witness.” “The writer’s task is only to describe those who have said or thought something about God and pessimism how, and in what circumstances. “It doesn’t seem to me that it is the job of writers of fiction to decide questions like God, pessimism etc,” he wrote to his lifelong friend Alexei Suvorin. During his lifetime this approach made Chekhov the target of hostile criticism, often from people frustrated that he defied convenient pigeonholing and couldn’t be placed within a particular school of political thought or philosophy. Chekhov’s was work to ponder, slices of life and character that required a little more input than just reading or watching. He had no desire to dictate themes or push a political or philosophical agenda. Rather than lead the audience through a story Chekhov set out to create a mood. Where 19th century theatre audiences had been used to plays with a solid narrative performed by actors declaiming their lines with expansive gestures, Chekhov’s work required a more subtle, natural delivery. His plays and his masterful short stories are widely performed, read and enjoyed today but Anton Chekhov was in many ways a man out of his time. Vera Komissarzhevskaya, playing Nina, lost her voice trying to make herself heard over the din.

Much of the first Russian performance of The Seagull in St Petersburg in 1896 was all but drowned out by booing and heckling. These were not opinions based entirely on parochialism or cultural differences either. “The players did their best it was not their fault that the entertainment was not entertaining.” “Queer, outlandish and silly,” was the verdict of the Times.

Anton chekhov