Anton Chekhov
1882
Young Chekhov
9 Oktiabr'skaia Street, Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, Russia
The Taganrog Boys Gymnasium in the late 19th century. The cross on top is no longer present.
8 Trubetskaya Street, Bldg. 2, Moscow, Russia, 119991
Anton Chekhov gained admission at the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University in 1879.
1894
Anton Chekhov, Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik and Lydia Yavorskaya.
1897
Anton Chekhov with dog Hina. Melikhovo.
1900
Chekhov with Leo Tolstoy at Yalta.
1902
Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy.
Anton Chekhov standing in a garden.
Circa 1898: Anton Chekhov reading his play The Seagull to members of the Moscow Arts Theatre, including theatre director and actor Stanislavsky, who is sitting on Chekhov's right.
Anton Chekhov in his study in Yalta, 1895-1900.
Anton Chekhov in Yalta, 1899-1900.
Anton Chekhov is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award.
Order of Saint Stanislaus was given to Anton Chekhov.
1882
Young Chekhov
1890
Anton Chekhov before his journey to Sakhalin Island.
1894
Anton Chekhov, Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik and Lydia Yavorskaya.
1897
Anton Chekhov with dog Hina. Melikhovo.
1900
Chekhov with Leo Tolstoy at Yalta.
1901
Anton Chekhov with his wife O. L. Knipper-Chekhova.
1902
Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy.
Anton Chekhov
9 Oktiabr'skaia Street, Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, Russia
The Taganrog Boys Gymnasium in the late 19th century. The cross on top is no longer present.
8 Trubetskaya Street, Bldg. 2, Moscow, Russia, 119991
Anton Chekhov gained admission at the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University in 1879.
Anton Chekov
Anton Chekov
Anton Pavlovich Chechov with his brother, Moscow. Around 1880.
Maxim Gorky with Anton Chekov in Yalta, Russia.
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov standing in a garden.
Circa 1898: Anton Chekhov reading his play The Seagull to members of the Moscow Arts Theatre, including theatre director and actor Stanislavsky, who is sitting on Chekhov's right.
Anton Chekhov, Yalta, Crimea, Russia, c.1900.
Anton Chekhov, posing between 1886 and 1890 with his family and friends in the courtyard of the house where he lived in Moscow.
Anton Chekhov in his study in Yalta, 1895-1900.
Anton Chekhov in Yalta, 1899-1900.
Anton Chekhov is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award.
Order of Saint Stanislaus was given to Anton Chekhov.
Chekhov Monument in Taganrog
Nikolai Chekhov, the author's brother.
Mikhail Chekhov, the author's brother.
Alexander Chekhov, the author's brother.
Yevgeniya Morozova, the author's mother.
Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, the author's father.
Maria Chekhova, the author's sister.
Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova was a spouse of Anton Chekhov.
(Ivan Chervyakov, a petty government official, while in th...)
Ivan Chervyakov, a petty government official, while in the theatre, sneezes right upon the head of a man sitting in front of him, who happens to be a high-ranking government official. He spends the evening and the next day fawning before his sneeze victim trying to extract forgiveness, but what he succeeds instead is only bringing out a fit of rage in him. Shocked, Chervyakov returns home to lie there and die, due to the sheer stress of having endured such horror.
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Government-Clerk-Anton-Chekhov-ebook/dp/B00DGJU91C/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
1883
(Ivanov is a portrait of a man plagued with self-doubt and...)
Ivanov is a portrait of a man plagued with self-doubt and despair. Considered one of Chekhov’s most elusive characters, he seeks more in life than the selfabsorption and ennui he sees in his contemporaries. Tormented by falling out of love with his dying Jewish wife, Ivanov, on her death, proposes to the young daughter of his neighbor, but, as the wedding party assembles, a final burst of his habitual indecisivness has fatal results.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080214408X/?tag=2022091-20
1887
(One-act-play with only two characters: Vasili Svietlovido...)
One-act-play with only two characters: Vasili Svietlovidoff, a 68 year old comic actor and Nikita Ivanich, an even older man, the theater's prompter.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00125AK1G/?tag=2022091-20
1887
(Written, published, and performed in 1888, Chekhov’s play...)
Written, published, and performed in 1888, Chekhov’s play reflects on and pokes fun of liberal discourses in mid- to late-nineteenth-century Russia, in particular those concerned with "The Woman Question." The Bear is engaged in dialogue with Chekhov's contemporaries and earlier Russian literature on women’s emancipation. The play condenses so much of human nature into this short, comical, bizarre, and ultimately triumphant act. Chekhov demonstrates how close (at times) is the relationship between anger and passion, and how strange and wonderful is the human condition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887343171/?tag=2022091-20
1888
("The Bet" is a story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and ...)
"The Bet" is a story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The story has a twist ending.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1521965439/?tag=2022091-20
1889
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0146000366/?tag=2022091-20
1894
(The Darling by Anton Chekhov follows the life of Olenka r...)
The Darling by Anton Chekhov follows the life of Olenka referred to as "the darling." Olenka suffers the loss of two husbands and latches on to a friend's/lodging border's young son. Dealing with pangs of loneliness and lost motherhood she clings to young Sasha. Olenka's behavior and thoughts convey Chekhov's message loud and clear in this story 'The Darling'.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1977618243/?tag=2022091-20
1899
(In Chekhov's tragi-comedy - perhaps his most popular play...)
In Chekhov's tragi-comedy - perhaps his most popular play - the Gayev family is torn by powerful forces, forces rooted deep in history, and in the society around them. Their estate is hopelessly in debt: urged to cut down their beautiful cherry orchard and sell the land for holiday cottages, they struggle to act decisively. Tom Murphy's fine vernacular version allows us to re-imagine the events of the play in the last days of Anglo-Irish colonialism. It gives this great play vivid new life within our own history and social consciousness.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486266826/?tag=2022091-20
1904
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1K452/?tag=2022091-20
1923
(The thirty-four stories in this volume span Chekhov’s cre...)
The thirty-four stories in this volume span Chekhov’s creative career.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393090027/?tag=2022091-20
1979
(This collection includes thirteen of Chekhov's plays: On ...)
This collection includes thirteen of Chekhov's plays: On The High Road, The Anniversary, On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, Swansong, Ivanov, The Bear, A Tragedian in Spite of Himself, The Wedding, A Marriage Proposal, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1781394040/?tag=2022091-20
2013
(This collection of ten of his best short stories includes...)
This collection of ten of his best short stories includes: Agafya, An Actor's End, An Adventure, An Anonymous Story, An Artist's Story, An Avenger, An Enigmatic Nature, An Inadvertence, An Incident and An Inquiry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S8SG0RI/?tag=2022091-20
(Chekhov’s major innovation near the end of the 19th centu...)
Chekhov’s major innovation near the end of the 19th century was in what became known as "stream-of-consciousness" writing, in which he eschewed common traditional story structure and simply wrote as though he was thinking aloud. Renowned writers like James Joyce and William Faulkner would eventually run with this theme, producing classics in the same vein.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1546741860/?tag=2022091-20
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Taganrog in southern Russia on the Azov Sea on January 17, 1860. He was the third of six children of Pavel Egorovich Chekhov, a grocery store owner, and Yevgeniya Morozova. Chekhov's grandfather was a serf, who bought his family's freedom in 1841.
Chekhov attended the Greek School in Taganrog and the Taganrog Gymnasium (since renamed the Chekhov Gymnasium), where he was kept down for a year at fifteen for failing an examination in Ancient Greek. He sang at the Greek Orthodox monastery in Taganrog and in his father's choirs.
Completing his studies in 1879, he moved to Moscow to join his family. Therein, he gained admission at the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.
Anton Chekhov essentially took to writing to support the family and his studies. He started off by writing humorous short stories about contemporary Russian life and soon earned a reputation for himself. He wrote under a number of pseudonyms.
In 1882, he started writing for Oskolki, which was one of the leading publishers of that time. Two years henceforth, he qualified as a physician and started practicing.
Despite the medical practice being his main profession, he did not make much money from it. Thus, he continued with his passion for writing. It was in 1886 that he was invited to write for Novoye Vremya (New Times), owned and edited by the business magnate Alexey Suvorin.
His writings impressed eminent Russian writers and readers. It was following the advice of Dmitry Grigorovich that he slowed down his speed and concentrated on coming up with quality work with artistic allure. In 1887, his work, 'At Dusk' won him the coveted Pushkin Prize.
Exhausted from his work and depleting health, he took a trip to Ukraine. The beauty of the place inspired and mesmerized him so much so that he penned a novella or short story on it titled, 'The Steppe'. The work was much appreciated and earned a publication in a literary journal. He followed this up with a play, 'Ivanov' which was much appreciated by the audience. The play marked a turning point in his career as it revealed a new level of intellectual development and literary rise in his life.
In 1890, he moved to the far east of Russia, where he spent much of his time interviewing thousands of convicts and settlers for a census. Meanwhile, during the journey, he wrote numerous letters to his sister about the town of Tomsk which are considered amongst his best work to date.
The state of affairs at Sakhalin moved him much emotionally as he was disturbed at the plight of men and women and the misuse of power. He concluded that more than charity and contribution, it was the need for humane treatment for the convicts that the government needs to concerned about. Much of his works written during this time were published as a work of science, informative in content.
In 1892, he moved to Melikhovo, a small country estate where he lived until 1899. During this time, he wrote under the pen name Shcheglov. He took up the landlord's responsibilities seriously and started working for the betterment of the society and its people by opening schools, relief camps, a clinic, fire station and so on.
During this time in life, he worked more as a medical practitioner treating the ailing and the destitute people rather than writing. His profession involved him to travel for long distances for treating the sick and desolate. However, these experiences led him to come up with the work 'Peasants' which gave a first-hand experience of the peasants' unhealthy and cramped living conditions.
In 1894, he started to pen his play, 'The Seagull'. The play opened in October 1896 to a jeering and hooting audience which lowered his morale to the point of renouncing theatre. Director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko was so impressed with the write-up of 'The Seagull' that he convinced Constantin Stanislavski to direct it for the innovative Moscow Art Theatre, thus reinstating his interest in playwriting. He then wrote a number of plays for the Art Theatre including 'Uncle Vanya'.
He moved to Yalta upon health complications and for a need to change the lifestyle. Therein he completed penning two more plays for Art Theatre, including 'The Cherry Orchard' and 'Three Sisters'. Additionally, he wrote his most famous story, 'The Lady with the Dog'.
In 1904, he was terminally ill with tuberculosis. By June, he moved to a spa town with his wife Olga. He breathed his last after a shot of camphor and a glass of champagne. Following his death, his body was transported in a refrigerated railway car to Moscow, where his body was buried next to his father at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Anton Chekhov was one of the most illustrious and celebrated short-story writers in the history of literature. For 25 years of creative work, Chekhov had created more than five hundred different works, many of which have become classics of world literature. His works have been translated into more than one hundred languages. His plays, especially The Seagull, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard, have been staged in many theaters in the world for over a hundred years.
Anton Pavlovich was a recipient of numerous awards, among which are Pushkin Prize, Order of St. Stanislav for work in the cause of national education, and Griboedov Prize. He was also elected as an Honorary Academician of the Pushkin Section of Belle Lettres of the Academy of Sciences in 1899.
In memory of the writer Moscow City and Moscow regional organizations of the Union of Writers of Russia and the Union of Writers and Translators in 2004, was established the Memorial Medal of Anton Chekhov. According to the magazine Ogonek, Chekhov is among the ten most "screened" classics of world literature and shares the second and third place with Charles Dickens.
In 1954, the village Lopasnya was transformed into a city of regional subordination Chekhov.
(This collection includes thirteen of Chekhov's plays: On ...)
2013(Chekhov’s major innovation near the end of the 19th centu...)
(This collection of ten of his best short stories includes...)
(Written, published, and performed in 1888, Chekhov’s play...)
1888(Ivan Chervyakov, a petty government official, while in th...)
1883("The Bet" is a story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and ...)
1889(In Chekhov's tragi-comedy - perhaps his most popular play...)
1904(One-act-play with only two characters: Vasili Svietlovido...)
1887(The Darling by Anton Chekhov follows the life of Olenka r...)
1899(The thirty-four stories in this volume span Chekhov’s cre...)
1979(Ivanov is a portrait of a man plagued with self-doubt and...)
1887Anton Chekhov wrote: "I received religious education in childhood and the same upbringing - with church singing, with the reading of the apostle and kathisma in the church, with regular attendance of matins, with the obligation to help at the altar and to ring the bell. So what? When I now recall my childhood, it seems rather gloomy to me; I don’t have religion now ... "
Chekhov denied the possibility of the existence of a "soul" as an independent substance and completely rejected the concept of personal immortality in its idealistic, religious interpretation.
Although for some time Chekhov was influenced by the ethical views of Leo Tolstoy, he did not join either liberals or conservatives. A trip to Sakhalin Island influenced his spiritual make-up and political views, as well as the content of his later works. In them he gave a versatile analysis of the Russian society with an obviously strong social line.
In all of Chekhov's works, regardless of the genre and time of writing, its main advantage is revealed - humanity, the ability to understand the imperfection of our existence and behavior. Chekhov did not accept speculation and science in explaining life phenomena. He preferred simple, understandable terms familiar to most people.
Anton Chekhov has been involved in charity work all his life. For example, in Melikhov, where he bought his estate, Chekhov organized a medical center in which every day, starting at five in the morning, he received patients and provided them with medicines. Anton Pavlovich was not limited only to medical activity. He also raised funds for the needy and built schools.
Quotations:
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
"Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and when he dies only the five senses that we know perish with him, and the other ninety-five remain alive."
"Any idiot can face a crisis; it's this day-to-day living that wears you out."
"The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them."
"What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself."
"The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it."
When asked, "Why do you always wear black?", he said, "I am mourning for my life."
"Wisdom comes not from age, but from education and learning."
"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you."
"Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be."
"Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other.”
"If you are afraid of loneliness, don't marry."
"Man is what he believes."
"We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."
"There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you’re angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you’re asked."
"A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend."
"If ever my life can be of any use to you, come and claim it."
"To fear love is to fear life, and those whose fear life are already three parts dead."
"There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality."
"Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?"
"And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe."
"There are a great many opinions in this world, and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble."
"The happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burden in silence. Without this silence, happiness would be impossible."
"The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly."
"Even in Siberia there is happiness."
"I was oppressed with a sense of vague discontent and dissatisfaction with my own life, which was passing so quickly and uninterestingly, and I kept thinking it would be a good thing if I could tear my heart out of my breast, that heart which had grown so weary of life."
Physical Characteristics: Chekhov was a brown-eyed blond. Throughout his life, he suffered from tuberculosis which worsened by the time his end approached. In 1897, he suffered from a major hemorrhage of the lungs.
Quotes from others about the person
Ernest Hemingway: "Chekhov wrote about six good stories. But he was an amateur writer."
Alan Twigg: "One can argue Anton Chekhov is the second-most popular writer on the planet. Only Shakespeare outranks Chekhov in terms of movie adaptations of their work, according to the movie database IMDb. We generally know less about Chekhov than we know about mysterious Shakespeare."
After being in romantic relationships with a couple of women, Chekhov finally tied the nuptials with Olga Knipper in 1901. The marriage resulted from an agreement according to which they would be married but would live differently, he in Yalta and she in Moscow.
In 1902, Olga suffered from a miscarriage. Though some claim that the conception may have occurred when Chekhov and Olga were apart, Russian scholars have refuted the same.
(1825 - October 12, 1898)
Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov ran a grocery store and was a director of the parish choir.
(1835 - 1919)
Yevgeniya Morozova was an excellent storyteller who entertained the children with tales of her travels with her cloth-merchant father all over Russia.
(September 21, 1868 - March 22, 1959)
Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova was a Russian and Soviet stage actress.
(May 23, 1858 - June 29, 1889)
Nikolai Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian painter.
(October 6, 1865 - November 14, 1936)
Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian writer and theater critic.
(August 22, 1855 - May 29, 1913)
Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and memoirist.
(August 31, 1863 - January 15, 1957)
Maria Pavlovna Chekhova was a Russian teacher, artist and founder of the Chekhov Memorial House museum in Yalta.
