Lubkov’s and Panaurov’s parasitical relationships to their friends are totally of a piece with their cynical approach to women. The reader cannot help but be astonished by the way in which such individuals take advantage of their friends’ unstinting and uncomplaining generosity with money (it being the Russian habit unashamedly to ask for a loan that clearly cannot be repaid). We read wide-eyed how Shamokhin again and again lends Lubkov money that he will clearly never see again. Shamokhin seems totally without willpower – to say no to either Ariadna or Lubkov, despite his critical attitude to both and disgust at their lifestyle, a lifestyle that he ends up sharing. His total disdain for money and willingness to incur endless debts to support first his wastrel friend and then Ariadna remind us that Russian attitudes to money and financial matters have historically been very different from those found in the West. The story that Shamokhin recounts of his relationship to Ariadna and Lubkov is subtly ironized by the device of the author/narrator to whom he tells his story and who finally is totally bored by it and falls asleep. We realize that Shamokhin’s ultimate need is to tell in as much embarrassing detail as he can the story of his own abasement.
Chekhov’s art is delicately poised between the achievements of nineteenth-century Russian realism and the abstraction and experimentation of the twentieth century. In his work we see a movement away from the large form, towards an increasingly poetic orientation towards the word and organization of the text. Such artistic movements as impressionism and the decorativeness of art nouveau find echoes in different stories. His world is not one in which there are easily discovered universal truths. Each grain of insight, each transcendental moment has to be earned at great cost, and the author unceasingly and mercilessly reminds us of its ephemeral nature. At the end of the day, there is a hard-hearted kindness in his work that refuses easy answers and comforting half-truths. To read his works with the insight they demand, and to learn to see the world with the courage with which he depicts it, is one of the most rewarding journeys literature has to offer.
FURTHER READING
Gordon McVay (tr.), Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters (London: Folio Society, 1994), the best selection and translation of letters.
Brian Reeves (tr.), The Island of Sakhalin (Cambridge: Ian Faulkner, 1993).
SECONDARY LITERATURE: GENERAL BOOKS
Toby W. Clyman, A Chekhov Companion (Westport/London: Greenwood Press, 1985), a very valuable if expensive collection of essays, with extensive bibliography.
P. Debreczeny and T. Eekman (eds), Chekhov’s Art of Writing: A Collection of Critical Essays (Columbus: Slavica, 1977).
Thomas Eekman (ed.), Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989), 208 pp.
W. Gerhardie, Anton Chekhov: A Critical Study (London: Macdonald, 1974), ‘Bloomsbury’ Chekhov, but well-informed.
R. L. Jackson, Chekhov: A Collection of Essays: 20th-Century Views (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967).
R. L. Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993).
S. Koteliansky (tr., ed.), Anton Chekhov: Literary and Theatrical Reminiscences (New York: Blom, 1968).
Virginia Llewellyn-Smith, Chekhov and the Lady with the Little Dog (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).
V. S. Pritchett, Chekhov. A Spirit Set Free (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988).
Donald Rayfield, Anton Chekhov: A Life (London: HarperCollins, 1997).
T. Winner, Chekhov and his Prose (New York: Holt, 1966).
WORKS ON INDIVIDUAL STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
‘The Black Monk’
Paul Debreczeny, ‘“The Black Monk”: Chekhov’s Version of Symbolism’, in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 179–88.
‘The Grasshopper’
George Pahomov, ‘Čexov’s “The Grasshopper”: A Secular Saint’s Life’, Slavic and East European Journal 37:1 (Spring 1993), pp. 33–45.
‘The Student’
Robert Louis Jackson, ‘Chekhov’s “The Student”’, in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 127–33.
‘Ward No. 6’
Andrew R. Durkin, ‘Chekhov’s Response to Dostoevskii: The Case of “Ward Six” ’, Slavic Review 40:1 (1981), pp. 49–59.
‘A Woman’s Kingdom’
Carol A. Flath, ‘Delineating the Territory of Cechov’s “A Woman’s Kingdom” ’, Russian Literature 44:4 (1998), pp. 389–408.
Robert Louis Jackson, ‘Chekhov’s “A Woman’s Kingdom”: A Drama of Character and Fate’, in Thomas A. Eekman (ed.), Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989), pp. 91–102.
CHRONOLOGY
1836 Gogol’s The Government Inspector
1852 Turgenev’s Sketches from a Hunter’s Album
1860 Dostoyevsky’s Notes From the House of the Dead (1860–61)
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov born on 17 January at Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov, the third son of Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, a grocer, and Yevgeniya Yakovlevna, née Morozova
1861 Emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II. Formation of revolutionary Land and Liberty Movement
1862 Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons
1863–4 Polish revolt. Commencement of intensive industrialization; spread of the railways; banks established; factories built. Elective District Councils (zemstvos) set up; judicial reform Tolstoy’s The Cossacks (1863)
1865 Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1864) by Leskov, a writer much admired by Chekhov
1866 Attempted assassination of Alexander II by Karakozov Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment
1867 Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin
1868 Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot
1868 Chekhov begins to attend Taganrog Gymnasium after wasted year at a Greek school
1869 Tolstoy’s War and Peace
1870 Municipal government reform
1870–71 Franco-Prussian War
1873 Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1873–7)
Chekhov sees local productions of Hamlet and Gogol’s The Government Inspector
1875 Chekhov writes and produces humorous magazine for his brothers in Moscow, The Stammerer, containing sketches of life in Taganrog
1876 Chekhov’s father declared bankrupt and flees to Moscow, followed by family except Chekhov, who is left in Taganrog to complete schooling. Reads Buckle, Hugo and Schopenhauer
1877–8 War with Turkey
1877 Chekhov’s first visit to Moscow; his family living in great hardship
1878 Chekhov writes dramatic juvenilia: full-length drama Father-lessness (MS destroyed), comedy Diamond Cut Diamond and vaudeville Why Hens Cluck (none published)
1879 Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1879–80) Tolstoy’s Confession (1879–82)
Chekhov matriculates from Gymnasium with good grades. Wins scholarship to Moscow University to study medicine Makes regular contributions to humorous magazine Alarm Clock
1880 General Loris-Melikov organizes struggle against terrorism Guy de Maupassant’s Boule de Suif
Chekhov introduced by artist brother Nikolay to landscape painter Levitan with whom has lifelong friendship
First short story, ‘A Letter from the Don Landowner Vladimirovich N to His Learned Neighbour’, published in humorous magazine Dragonfly. More stories published in Dragonfly under pseudonyms, chiefly Antosha Chekhonte.
1881 Assassination of Alexander II; reactionary, stifling regime of Alexander III begins
Sarah Bernhardt visits Moscow (Chekhov calls her acting ‘superficial’)
Chekhov continues to write very large numbers of humorous sketches for weekly magazines (until 1883). Becomes regular contributor to Nikolay Leykin’s Fragments, a St Petersburg weekly humorous magazine. Writes (1881–2) play now usually known as Platonov (discovered 1923), rejected by Maly Theatre; tries to destroy manuscript
1882 Student riots at St Petersburg
and Kazan universities. More discrimination against Jews
Chekhov is able to support the family with scholarship money and earnings from contributions to humorous weeklies
1883 Tolstoy’s What I Believe
Chekhov gains practical experience at Chikino Rural Hospital
1884 Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. J.-K. Huysmans’ À Rebours Chekhov graduates and becomes practising physician at Chikino. First signs of his tuberculosis in December
Six stories about the theatre published as Fairy-Tales of Melpomene. His crime novel, The Shooting Party, serialized in Daily News
1885–6 Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilich (1886) On first visit to St Petersburg, Chekhov begins friendship with very influential Aleksey Suvorin (1834–1912), editor of the highly regarded daily newspaper New Times. Chekhov has love affairs with Dunya Efros and Natalya Golden (later his sister-in-law). His TB is now unmistakable
Publishes more than 100 short stories. ‘The Requiem’ is the first story to appear under own name and his first in New Times (February 1886). First collection, Motley Tales
1887 Five students hanged for attempted assassination of Tsar; one is Lenin’s brother
Tolstoy’s drama Power of Darkness (first performed in Paris), for which he was called nihilist and blasphemer by Alexander III
Chekhov elected member of Literary Fund. Makes trip to Taganrog and Don steppes
Second book of collected short stories In the Twilight. Ivanov produced – a disaster
1888 Chekhov meets Stanislavsky. Attends many performances at Maly and Korsh theatres and becomes widely acquainted with actors, stage managers, etc. Meets Tchaikovsky
Completes ‘The Steppe’, which marks his ‘entry’ into serious literature. Wins Pushkin Prize for ‘the best literary production distinguished by high artistic value’ for In the Twilight, presented by literary division of Academy of Sciences. His one-act farces The Bear (highly praised by Tolstoy) and The Proposal extremely successful. Begins work on The Wood Demon (later Uncle Vanya). Radically revises Ivanov for St Petersburg performance
1889 Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata (at first highly praised by Chekhov)
Chekhov meets Lidiya Avilova, who later claims love affair with him. Tolstoy begins to take an interest in Chekhov, who is elected to Society of Lovers of Russian Literature
‘A Dreary Story’. The Wood Demon a resounding failure
1890 World weary, Chekhov travels across Siberia by carriage and river boat to Sakhalin to investigate conditions at the penal colony (recorded in The Island of Sakhalin). After seven months returns to Moscow (via Hong Kong, Singapore and Ceylon (Sri Lanka))
Collection Gloomy People (dedicated to Tchaikovsky). Only two stories published – ‘Gusev’ and ‘Thieves’. Immense amount of preparatory reading for The Island of Sakhalin
1891 Severe famine in Volga basin (Chekhov organizes relief) Chekhov undertakes six-week tour of Western Europe with Suvorin. Intense affair with Lika Mizinova
Works on The Island of Sakhalin. ‘The Duel’ published serially. Works on ‘The Grasshopper’
1892 Chekhov buys small estate at Melikhovo, near Moscow; parents and sister live there with him. Gives free medical aid to peasants. Re-reads Turgenev; regards him as inferior to Tolstoy and very critical of his heroines
‘Ward No. 6’ and ‘An Anonymous Story’
1893 The Island of Sakhalin completed and published serially
1894 Death of Alexander III; accession of Nicholas II; 1,000 trampled to death at Khodynka Field during coronation celebrations. Strikes in St Petersburg
Chekhov makes another trip to Western Europe
‘The Student’, ‘Teacher of Literature’, ‘At a Country House’ and ‘The Black Monk’
1895 ‘Three Years’. Writes ‘Ariadna’, ‘Murder’ and ‘Anna Round the Neck’. First draft of The Seagull
1896 Chekhov agitates personally for projects in rural education and transport; helps in building of village school at Talezh; makes large donation of books to Taganrog Public Library ‘My Life’ published in instalments. The Seagull meets with hostile reception at Aleksandrinsky Theatre
1897 Chekhov works for national census; builds second rural school. Crisis in health with lung haemorrhage; convalesces in Nice ‘Peasants’ is strongly attacked by reactionary critics and mutilated by censors. Publishes Uncle Vanya, but refuses to allow performance (until 1899)
1898 Formation of Social Democrat Party. Dreyfus affair Stanislavsky founds Moscow Art Theatre with Nemirovich-Danchenko
Chekhov very indignant over Dreyfus affair and supports Zola; conflict with anti-Semitic Suvorin over this. His father dies. Moves to Yalta, where he buys land. Friendly with Gorky and Bunin (both of whom left interesting memoirs of Chekhov). Attracted to Olga Knipper at Moscow Art Theatre rehearsal of The Seagull, but leaves almost immediately for Yalta. Correspondence with Gorky
Trilogy ‘Man in a Case’, ‘Gooseberries’ and ‘About Love’. ‘Ionych’. The Seagull has first performance at Moscow Art Theatre and Chekhov is established as a playwright
1899 Widespread student riots
Tolstoy’s Resurrection serialized
Chekhov has rift with Suvorin over student riots. Olga Knipper visits Melikhovo. He sells Melikhovo in June and moves with mother and sister to Yalta. Awarded Order of St Stanislav for educational work
‘Darling’, ‘New Country Villa’ and ‘On Official Duty’. Signs highly unfavourable contract with A. F. Marks for complete edition of his works. Taxing and time-consuming work of compiling first two volumes. Moderate success of Uncle Vanya at Moscow Art Theatre. Publishes one of finest stories, ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’. Completes ‘In the Ravine’. Begins serious work on Three Sisters; goes to Nice to revise last two acts
1900 Chekhov settles in the house built by him in Yalta. Actors from the Moscow Art Theatre visit Sevastopol and Yalta at his request. Low opinion of Ibsen
Sees Uncle Vanya for first time
1901 Formation of Socialist Revolutionary Party. Tolstoy excommunicated by Russian Orthodox Church
Chekhov marries Olga Knipper
Première of Three Sisters at Moscow Art Theatre, with Olga Knipper as Masha. Works on ‘The Bishop’
1902 Sipyagin, Minister of Interior, assassinated. Gorky excluded from Academy of Sciences by Nicholas II
Gorky’s The Lower Depths produced at Moscow Art Theatre Chekhov resigns from Academy of Sciences together with Korolenko in protest at exclusion of Gorky. Awarded Griboyedov Prize by Society of Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers for Three Sisters
Completes ‘The Bishop’. Begins ‘The Bride’, his last story. Begins The Cherry Orchard
1903 Completion of Trans-Siberian Railway. Massacre of Jews at Kishinev pogrom
Chekhov elected provisional president of Society of Lovers of Russian Literature
Completes ‘The Bride’ and the first draft of The Cherry Orchard. Arrives in Moscow for Art Theatre rehearsal of The Cherry Orchard; strong disagreement with Stanislavsky over its interpretation
1904 Assassination of Pleve, Minister of Interior, by Socialist revolutionaries. War with Japan
Chekhov dies of TB on 15 July at Badenweiler in the Black Forest (Germany)
Première of The Cherry Orchard at Moscow Art Theatre
NOTE ON TEXT
Chekhov’s stories (like most of the literature of the time) were not first published as separate books, but appeared in magazines or newspapers such as New Times, or in the thick journals, chiefly Russian Thought. Some of the stories were subsequently published in separate selections, such as Tales and Stories (1894).
In 1899 Chekhov made over the copyright of all his work (with the exception of the plays) to the publisher A. F. Marks in return for 75,000 roubles. Although the terms seemed favourable at the time, many of Chekhov’s friends felt he had been highly imprudent in signing the contract (Gorky unsuccessfully tried to get him to break the contract) as they considered the terms grossly inadequate.
In addition the need to collate all the stories that had so far appeared in magazines and newspapers, together with meticulous editing and improving the material, taxed Chekhov sorely and was very time-consuming. The Marks edition was published in 1899–1901, in ten volumes, and reprinted in 1903. However, the main drawback of this edition was that the stories were not printed chronologically. The first scholarly edition, with full notes and commentary, was published in Moscow, 1944–51.
Between 1973 and 1983, the definitive thirty-volume edition, Polnoye Sobraniye Sochineniy i Pisem (Complete Collected Works and Letters) was published in Moscow, with extensive commentaries by leading Soviet Chekhov scholars. It is on this edition that these translations are based.
PATRONYMICS
Russian names consist of first name, patronymic and surname, the patronymic or middle name being derived from the father’s first name. For example, Chekhov’s middle name, Pavlovich, derives from his father’s first name, Pavel. In formal speech first name and patronymic are usual: a servant addressing his master would use both first name and patronymic. But a master would use only a first name when talking to a servant. In ‘Murder’ (p. 171), reference is made to the use of name and patronymic.
However, Chekhov does now and then use the direct equivalent of the English ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’, as in ‘A Woman’s Kingdom’.
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories
The Grasshopper
I
All Olga Ivanovna’s friends and close acquaintances were at her wedding.
‘Just look at him, don’t you think there’s something about him?’ she was telling them, nodding towards her husband as if eager to explain why on earth she was marrying such a simple, very ordinary and thoroughly undistinguished man.
Her husband, Osip Stepanych Dymov, was a junior doctor who worked at two hospitals. In one of them he was a temporary registrar and in the other a pathologist. Every day, from nine in the morning until noon, he saw out-patients and visited his ward, and in the afternoon he would take a horse tram to the other hospital, where he performed postmortems on patients who had died there. His private practice was quite negligible, bringing in about five hundred roubles a year. That is all. What else can one say about him? On the other hand, Olga Ivanovna and her cronies were not altogether run-of-the-mill people. Every one of them was distinguished in some way, pretty well known, had forged a reputation and was considered a celebrity: and if they weren’t actually famous yet, they showed brilliant promise. There was an actor with outstanding, long-recognized talent – an elegant, intelligent and modest man with a first-class delivery who gave Olga Ivanovna elocution lessons. There was the opera singer, a genial, fat man who would sigh and assure Olga Ivanovna that she was ruining herself and that if she would only stop being so lazy and apply herself she would develop into a remarkable singer. And there were several artists whose leading light was the genre, animal and landscape painter Ryabovsky, an extremely handsome man of about twenty-five, who had held successful exhibitions and whose latest picture had sold for five hundred roubles. He would put the finishing touches to Olga’s sketches and say that perhaps she might make something of herself. Then there was the cellist who could make his instrument weep and who frankly admitted that of all the women he knew Olga Ivanovna alone could accompany him properly. Then there was the writer – young, but already well known – who wrote novellas, plays and short stories. And who else? Well, there was Vasily Vasilych, a gentleman landowner, amateur illustrator and vignettist with a profound feeling for the old Russian style, for folk ballads and epic poetry. This man could produce virtual miracles on paper, china and smoked plates. In this highly artistic, free and easy, spoilt company, sensitive and unpretentious though it was, but which acknowledged the existence of doctors only in times of illness and for which the name Dymov meant absolutely nothing – in this company Dymov was a stranger, a superfluous, diminutive figure, although he was actually tall and broad-shouldered. He seemed to be wearing someone else’s frock coat and his beard was like a shop assistant’s. Had he been a writer or artist, however, people would have said that he positively resembled Zola with that beard of his.
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories Page 3