Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов) (January 29, 1860 - July 14/15, 1904) was a Russian doctor and writer born in Taganrog (now in Ukraine).
He qualified as a doctor in 1884 although he rarely practised. After a successful production of The Seagull by the Moscow Art Theatre, he wrote three more plays for the same company: Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. In 1901 he married Olga Leonardovna Knipper (1870-1959), an actress who performed in his plays.
Chekhov is one of the few Russian dramatists whose works are well known in western Europe. His plays commonly feature the struggle of a sensitive individual to maintain his integrity against the temptations of worldly success. A recurring theme is the pointlessness of radical, human/mechanical change, versus the powerful inertia of slow natural/organic cycles.
He died in Badenweiler, Germany, of tuberculosis and is now buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.
Works
Plays
- That Worthless Fellow Platonov (c.1881) - one act
- On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco (1886, 1902)
- Ivanov (1887) - four acts
- The Bear (1888) - one act comedy
- The Proposal or A Marriage Proposal (c.1888-1889) - one act
- The Wood Demon (1889) - four-act comedy
- The Seagull (1896)
- Uncle Vanya (1899-1900) - based on The Wood Demon
- The Three Sisters (1901)
- The Cherry Orchard (1904)
Nonfiction
- A Journey to Sakhalin (1895), including:
- Saghalien [or Sakhalin] Island (1891-1895)
- Across Siberia
- Letters
Short Stories
Many of these were written under the pseudonym "Antosha Chekhonte".
- "Intrigues" (1879-1884) - nine stories
- "Late-Blooming Flowers" (1882)
- "The Swedish Match" (1883)
- "Lights" (1883-1888)
- "Oysters" (1884)
- "Perpetuum Mobile" (1884)
- "Motley Stories" ("Pëstrye Rasskazy") (1886)
- "Excellent People" (1886)
- "Misery" (1886)
- "The Princess" (1886)
- "The Scholmaster" (1886)
- "A Work of Art" (1886)
- "Hydrophobia" (1886-1901)
- "The Beggar" (1887)
- "The Doctor" (1887)
- "Enemies" (1887)
- "The Examining Magistrate" (1887)
- "Happiness" (1887)
- "The Kiss" (1887)
- "On Easter Eve" (1887)
- "Typhus" (1887)
- "Volodya" (1887)
- "The Steppe" (1888) - won the Pushkin Prize
- "An Attack of Nerves" (1888)
- "An Awkward Business" (1888)
- "The Beauties" (1888)
- "The Swan Song" (1888)
- "Sleepy" (1888)
- "The Name-Day Party" (1888)
- "A Boring Story" (1889)
- "Gusev" (1890)
- "The Horse Stealers" (1890)
- "The Duel" (1891)
- "Peasant Wives" (1891)
- "Ward No 6" (1892)
- "In Exile" (1892)
- "The Grasshopper" (1892)
- "Neighbours" (1892)
- "Terror" (1892)
- "My Wife" (1892)
- "The Butterfly" (1892)
- "The Two Volodyas" (1893)
- "An Anonymous Story" (1893)
- "The Black Monk" (1894)
- "The Head Gardener's Story" (1894)
- "Rothschild's Fiddle" (1894)
- "The Student" (1894)
- "The Teacher of Literature" (1894)
- "A Woman's Kingdom" (1894)
- "Three Years" (1895)
- "Ariadne" (1895)
- "Murder" (1895)
- "The House with an Attic" (1896)
- "My Life" (1896)
- "At Home" (1897)
- "Peasants" (1897)
- "In the Cart" (1897)
- "The Man in a Case", "Gooseberries", "About Love" - the 'Little Trilogy' (1898)
- "Ionych" (1898)
- "A Doctor's Visit" (1898)
- "The New Villa" (1898)
- "On Official Business" (1898)
- "The Darling" (1899)
- "The Lady with the Dog" (1899)
- "At Christmas" (1899)
- "In the Ravine" (1900)
- "The Bishop" (1902)
- "Betrothed" or "A Marriageable Girl" (1903)
Novels
External link