Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

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Anton Chekhov (around 1903)
Anton Chekhov signature.svg

Anton Chekhov [ tʃʲɛxəf ] ( Russian Антон Павлович Чехов ( pronunciation ? / I ), scientific. Transliteration Anton Pavlovič Chekhov * 17; jul. / 29. January 1860 greg. In Taganrog , Russia ; † 2 jul. / 15th July 1904 greg. In Badenweiler , German Reich ) was a Russian writer , novelist and playwright . He came from a middle-class southern Russian family and was a doctor by profession, but practiced medicine almost exclusively on a voluntary basis. At the same time he wrote and published a total of over 600 literary works between 1880 and 1903. Internationally, Chekhov is best known as a playwright through his plays such as Three Sisters , The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard . With his typical, value-neutral and reserved way of portraying aspects of the life and way of thinking of people in the Russian provinces, Chekhov is considered one of the most important authors of Russian literature . Audio file / audio sample   

Life

Childhood and youth

Anton Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860 in the southern Russian port city of Taganrog on the Azov Sea . His father, Pawel Jegorowitsch Chekhov (1825–1898), was the son of a former serf peasant from the Voronezh Governorate and ran a small cheap goods store in Taganrog as a merchant. Chekhov's mother, Yevgenia Jakowlewna Chekhova (née Morosowa; 1835-1919), also came from a former serf peasant family. The couple raised a total of six children: in addition to Anton, there were sons Alexander (1855–1913), Nikolai (1858–1889), Iwan (1861–1922) and Michail (1865–1936) and their daughter Marija (1863–1957) .

Chekhov's birthplace in Taganrog

The father's merchant title could not hide the extremely modest sales of his shop, which was not least due to the lack of business acumen of Pavel Yegorowitsch, but also to the generally poor economic situation of Taganrog, which in the second half of the 19th century was once important as The seaport had noticeably lost due to the silting up of the bay. As a result, the Chekhov siblings grew up in poor and cramped conditions. The brothers, including Anton, had to help out in the shop early on; Added to this was the strict religiosity and musical enthusiasm of the father, later described by Chekhov as despotic and authoritarian, who forced his sons to sing daily in a church choir. The family initially lived in a small house on Polizeiskaja uliza ("Police Street") in Taganrog.

The Taganrog grammar school that Chekhov attended

Despite the oppressive financial situation, Chekhov's parents made it important to give their children a solid general education: At the age of eight, Anton was assigned to the preparatory class of the Second Taganrog Boys' High School, which he then attended from 1869 to 1879. All in all, Anton showed himself to be a rather average student who even stayed seated twice (namely in the third and fifth grade). In view of the systematic burden on the brothers, who had to sing in the choir and work in father's shop when they were not teaching, but also in view of the extremely authoritarian teaching and upbringing methods in schools in the Russian Empire at the time, this circumstance does not seem surprising.

Even as a high school student, Anton Chekhov, who was usually seen as reserved and reserved, showed a pronounced sense of humor and a great deal of interest in acting and literature. He earned the reputation of a rascal at school for his satirical comments and bad habits, as well as his ability to use humorous nicknames for teachers. In the few free hours the Chekhov siblings had at their disposal, the brothers used to attend various performances at the Taganrog City Theater and often tried to stage amusing amateur plays on a stage they had constructed themselves. From 1877 onwards, Anton was a regular guest in the public library in Taganrog, which had recently been set up.

Family photo of the Chekhovs, 1874. Back row v. l. to r .: Iwan, Anton, Nikolai, Alexander, Mitrofan (Anton's uncle); front row v. l. To the right: Michail, Marija, father Pawel, mother Yevgenia, Lyudmila (Mitrofan's wife), Georgi (her son).

In 1869 the Chekhov family moved into a new house on Monastyrskaja uliza ("Klosterstrasse"). The poorly calculated house purchase by Chekhov's father and the steadily declining store sales aggravated his financial problems so much in the following years that he had to declare his store bankrupt in the spring of 1876 . Since this meant imminent imprisonment at the time , Pavel Yegorowitsch had no choice but to give up the shop and secretly flee to Moscow , where Alexander and Nikolai had been staying since the summer of 1875. A few months later his mother followed him with the two youngest children, while Anton and Iwan still had to go to Taganrog High School. From this time on, Anton was in fact dependent on himself, because the Chekhov family initially had no regular income in Moscow and was exposed to bitter poverty. The house in Taganrog went to one of the creditors, Anton only rented a corner there to live in. Ivan found temporary accommodation with an aunt until he also moved to Moscow in the fall of 1876. Anton, who was stubbornly striving for his Abitur, stayed behind alone and kept himself afloat with earnings from tutoring and the sale of the remaining parental household goods; he also sent part of his family's meager income to Moscow.

Years later, with recognizable reference to his childhood and youth as well as to his unwanted early adulthood, he said in a letter to his longtime publisher Suvorin as follows:

“What the noble writers got from nature for free, the Rasnochinzen [intellectuals from the lower social classes] buy for themselves at the expense of their youth. Write a story like a young man, son of a serf, former shop boy, choir singer, high school student and student, brought up to be in awe of the hierarchy, to kiss priests' hands and to adore strange thoughts, who thanked him for every piece of bread Who was often beaten, who went to the lessons without overshoes, who fought, tortured animals, who liked to have lunch with rich relatives, who just feigned before God and man without any necessity out of the awareness of his nothingness - write like this one young man squeezes the slave out of himself drop by drop and how he wakes up one fine morning and feels that his veins are no longer slave blood, but real human blood. "

After graduating from high school in 1879, Chekhov was granted a grant of 25 rubles a month by the Taganrog city administration and he then traveled to Moscow with two schoolmates to study medicine there - as he had planned long before .

Studies and literary beginnings

Chekhov's career at Moscow's Lomonosov University , at whose medical faculty he enrolled shortly after arriving in Moscow, lasted from September 1879 to graduation in the summer of 1884. The Chekhov family of seven changed homes several times during this time and had to relocate in particular Satisfied with extremely cramped living conditions in the first few months, which caused Anton immense difficulties in preparing for the exams. These were exacerbated by the fact that he had devoted himself to writing since his early years at university, which, in view of the poverty in which the family had to live, had turned out to be an important source of income.

Anton (left) and Nikolai Chekhov, 1882

Chekhov's beginnings as an author go back to his days in Taganrog: As a teenager, he tried to write short miniatures, parodies and anecdotes as well as comic and funny stories. About his older brother Alexander, who was living in Moscow at the time and who also tried his hand at writing humorous newspapers and magazines there, Anton sent some of these miniatures (none of which has survived) to various Moscow editorial offices, but initially without success. Around 1878, Chekhov also wrote a play for the first time, which was to be given the title Fatherless and was dedicated to the star actress Maria Yermolova , who was highly admired by Chekhov . This piece, too, was not welcomed in Moscow despite intensive subsequent revisions and has since been considered destroyed; It was only discovered in 1920 as an untitled manuscript and published for the first time in 1923 (since then this piece has become known abroad as Platonov ).

Chekhov himself later referred to the period between 1878 and 1880 as the beginning of his actual writing activity several times in his letters, but could not give any more precise dates. The first Chekhov publications still preserved today date from 1880, when Anton finally succeeded after several unsuccessful attempts to publish ten humorous short stories and miniatures in the St. Petersburg magazine Strekosa (in German "Libelle"). In 1881 and 1882 similar publications followed in numerous more or less well-known humor and satirical magazines, including the magazines Budilnik (“The Wecker”), Sritel (“ Viewer ”), Moskwa (“Moscow”) and Swet i teni (“Light and Shadow ").

An editorial meeting of the Budilnik . Chekhov is seen second from the left. A drawing from 1885

A few letters from the author's early student days provide information about the difficult circumstances under which Chekhov created his early works. In August 1883 he wrote to the editor in a letter accompanying short stories for a magazine:

“I write under the worst of conditions. In front of me is my non-literary work, which taps my conscience relentlessly, in the next room the small child of a visiting relative is screaming, in another room my father reads aloud to his mother from Leskow 's ' Sealed Angel ' […] My bed is documented by the relatives who have traveled to see me from time to time and bring the conversation to medicine […] I am unfortunate to be a doctor and there is no individual who does not consider it necessary to argue with me To maintain medicine [...] An unprecedented situation. "

The half-joking, self-deprecating tone that Chekhov adopts in this letter is characteristic of most of his letters, both from his student days and from his later years. Not only the housing situation and the poor conditions in general made work difficult; Added to this were the newspaper editors' often poor payment behavior, editorial requirements (in the case of the magazine Oskolki (“Splitter”), for example, no more than 100 lines per story were allowed) and, last but not least, state censorship . In Russia, especially in the 1880s, after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the latter made an extremely strict and often arbitrary selection of all texts intended for publication in the press. For example, failed the first printed book Chekhov, the 1882-built story collection Schelmerei (russ. Шалость ), at the censorship and has since been considered lost.

Although he passed all the exams properly and obtained his medical diploma within the prescribed five years, Chekhov was considered a rather average, not very ambitious student. Despite his keen enthusiasm for medicine and the natural sciences in general - Chekhov, for example, emphasized his liking for the teachings of Darwin in a letter from 1886, and towards the end of his studies he seriously planned to write a scientific research paper on the history of the gender order in nature - The writing activity, which, in contrast to medicine, brought in something financially, remained his main concern even during his studies. Until his admission as a doctor in September 1884, he managed to use a number of pseudonyms (including his best-known author's pseudonym “Antoscha Chechonté”, as he was disparagingly called by a teacher when he was at school), as well as fantasy names such as “brother of the brother”, “man without a spleen "Or" Junge Greis ") to publish a total of over 200 stories , feature sections and humoresques in various magazines. Some of the stories written during this time are still among his best-known works today, such as the satirical short stories The Death of the Official , At Sea , The Daughter of Albion , The Fat and the Thin (all 1883) or Surgery , A Terrible Night and Ein Chameleon (all 1884). In the summer of 1884, Chekhov's first (published) book, a collection of six stories , appeared with the fairy tales of Melpomene (Russian Сказки Мельпомены ).

Intense creative phase (1884–1889)

In June 1884 Chekhov graduated from medical school. The family spent the summer in brother Ivan's spacious official apartment in Voskressensk near Moscow (today Istra ), where he worked as a teacher. There Anton Chekhov immediately took up medical practice: he received patients in the local village hospital and in the Zemstvo hospital in the nearby town of Zvenigorod , and also participated in forensic medical examinations and carried out autopsies. Chekhov practically performed his work with the patients on a voluntary basis, since only very few of them were able to pay for the treatment appropriately and Chekhov, who regarded his literary work as his main source of income instead of his medical work, mostly overlooked it. This did not change in later years either when the Chekhov family moved to their own estate and Anton Chekhov treated farmers there. Outside the summer months, when the Chekhovs were using their Moscow apartment, Anton enjoyed treating the family's numerous friends and relatives. To this end, he wrote in a letter to his uncle, again in the usual ironic style: “I still treat. Every day I have to spend over a ruble on carriage rides. I have a lot of friends, therefore also a lot of patients ”, and further about the poor payment behavior of the patients:“ I treat half of them for free. The other pays five or three rubles per patient visit ”.

Chekhov 1889

But it was also his work as a doctor that Chekhov was able to provide a lot of material for his stories, and he wrote particularly intensely in the second half of the 1880s: In 1885 alone, a total of 133 texts were printed by him, in 1886 there were 112 and 1887 at least 64. Chekhov continued to write most of the stories under pseudonyms. This only began to change after Chekhov, who by now enjoyed a certain popularity in literary circles (after all, he was allowed to publish in the renowned newspaper Peterburgskaja Gazeta since April 1885 ), accepted for the first time in his life in December 1885 at the invitation of the Oskolki editorial team had started a visit to the capital Saint Petersburg . There he made the acquaintance of the influential publisher Alexei Suworin , who a little later offered him a collaboration on more attractive terms. At the same time, Chekhov got to know the then famous novelist Dmitri Grigorowitsch , who expressly praised Chekhov and attested him an outstanding talent. Grigorovich, who at that time had a high authority in Russian literary circles and whose opinion meant a lot to Chekhov, advised him in a letter a few months later to drop the pseudonyms, and Chekhov gradually followed this advice: from 1886 he worked closely with Suvorin and published many of his new stories under his own name in the Suvorin newspaper Novoje wremja ("New Time"), at that time one of the highest-circulation papers in the country. Chekhov also published some of his new stories in the moderately liberal monthly Russkaya Mysl (“The Russian Thought”).

From 1885 to 1887, the Chekhovs lived in the summer months on the Babkino estate near Voskressensk, which belonged to a befriended family. Chekhov's brother Mikhail later recorded in his memoirs that the scenic beauty of the area around Babkino, where there was excellent fishing and mushroom picking, must have been decisive for the heyday of Anton's work. In particular, Chekhov was able to win a number of subjects for his future works there. This applies, for example, to stories such as Die Ealraupe , Im Alter , Der Jäger (all 1885), Die Hexe (1886) or Wolodja (1887), whose actions are integrated into a similar landscape. Chekhov has long been writing not only humorous texts, but increasingly also stories in which serious or even dramatic topics were dealt with. Occasionally - as is typical of later Chekhov works - social problems in the Russian provinces were dealt with. Such dramatic Chekhov narratives of the late 1880s include works such as Anjuta , Exciting Experiences , Mess , Ein Glücklichen , A Known Gentleman , In the Courtroom , The Misfortune , The Soul Mass , In the Swamp , Schwere Naturen , Pastime (all 1886) and Typhus or The old house (1887).

Chekhov's trip to his homeland, which he undertook in the spring of 1887, provided further topics. He visited relatives in Taganrog , Novocherkassk and other places in southern Russia. He traveled through the steppe landscapes on the Don and the Sea of ​​Azov . Later he lamented the oppressive backwardness and lack of culture in this region, but was inspired by the natural beauty of these vast plains. This is how the novella Die Steppe , published in 1888, was created, an authentic description of the landscape designed with great linguistic power. The same applies to the short story Glück , published in 1887 .

Trip to Sakhalin

By the late 1880s, Chekhov's literary productivity declined noticeably. In February 1888 he wrote in a letter: “'The steppe' has cost me so much juice and energy that I will not be able to start anything serious again for a long time.” In 1888 and 1889 Chekhov published just under two dozen stories, short stories ( including The Name Day and Boring Story ) and stage plays (such as the two one-act plays The Bear and The Marriage Proposal ). Although he was able to lift his family out of poverty thanks to increasing popularity and increasing circulation, the writing work was now impaired by editing and proofreading his own anthologies. In the summer of 1889, the Chekhovs rented an estate near the city of Sumy in what is now Ukraine. There, too, literary work progressed rather slowly. She was also handicapped by the early death of her older brother Nikolai, who died in June 1889 of rapidly progressing tuberculosis .

Convicts on Sakhalin. 1880s

The acquaintance with the lecture materials of his younger brother Mikhail, who was studying law at the time, on criminal law and the prison system of the Russian Empire, encouraged Chekhov to travel to Siberia and the Pacific island of Sakhalin in the extreme Far East of Russia in late 1889 to learn about forced labor ( Katorga ) in the extremely remote province that is considered a prisoner island. At the beginning of 1890 he intensively studied scientific publications on Sakhalin and prepared for the trip, for which he had planned six months. Chekhov refused any attempts by relatives and friends to prevent him from taking this trip. In a letter to Suvorin, for example, he said:

“You write […] that Sakhalin is neither necessary nor interesting for anyone. Is that correct? Sakhalin can only be useless and uninteresting for a society that does not banish thousands of people there and spend millions on it [...] Sakhalin is a place of unbearable suffering, which only free and dependent people are capable of. "

On April 21, Chekhov set out on the journey, first by train to Yaroslavl , from there by river steamer to Perm and further on, mainly by horse-drawn carriages across the Urals , Western Siberia , Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk to Lake Baikal and the Amur River , from there again by ship to the north coast of Sakhalin. Overall, the outward journey lasted almost three months and on the route between the Urals and Lake Baikal often led through difficult-to-pass mountain roads or land connections flooded with spring floods. The many letters that Chekhov sent to relatives and friends during this grueling journey document this journey. Chekhov often admired the scenic beauty of Siberia and the Far East as well as the free spirit of the locals, but also lamented the poverty and backwardness there.

Literature museum and Chekhov bust in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

The author stayed on Sakhalin for three months, from July to October 1890. He visited all prisons (with the exception of institutions for political prisoners, to which the island administration did not allow him access), treated the sick whenever possible and recorded all islanders ( then around 10,000 people) as part of a census . In September he summed up his work on the northern part of the island:

“I don't know what the result is, but I've worked quite a bit. It would be enough for three dissertations. I got up every day at five o'clock in the morning, went to bed late and every day the thought that I hadn't done much was put in great tension […] Incidentally, I had the patience, a census of the entire population to be carried out by Sakhalin. I traveled to all the settlements, visited every farmhouse and spoke to each one of them; [...] on Sakhalin there is no convict or penal colonist who has not spoken to me. "

The return journey by ship across the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, with a stopover in Ceylon ("Here, in paradise, I covered more than a hundred weres by train and was fed up with palm forests and bronze-colored women"), through the Suez Canal , across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea , took a good month and a half. Chekhov processed his impressions in the story Gussew (1890), which was partly written on the ship. Chekhov arrived in Moscow in early December 1890. The experiences on Sakhalin, which Chekhov later called "the real hell", he later wrote down in the non-fiction book The Island of Sakhalin , completed in 1893 , which describes in a shocking way the miserable life of the marginalized in the Tsarist empire. The book, in which, among other things, the chastisement of prisoners, corruption and child prostitution as omnipresent manifestations of the katorga, caused a sensation in the Russian Empire shortly after its publication and caused the Ministry of Justice to set up a commission of inquiry into Sakhalin to clarify the grossest abuses sent.

reception

Life in Melichowo (1892–1898)

In order to relax from the general hustle and bustle that reigned around him after his return, Chekhov made his first trip to other European countries together with Suvorin in the spring of 1891, visiting Vienna , Venice (which he was evidently particularly delighted by), Florence , Rome and Paris . The following summer the family spent on an estate with Alexin on the central Russian Oka River , where Chekhov continued his work on the book The Island of Sakhalin . In letters he often complained about the difficulties he had in writing the book, which also required the help of numerous scientific and statistical materials. In addition, Chekhov's state of health deteriorated again and again: as early as December 1884, his first attack of coughing up blood had announced his long-standing tuberculosis disease, from which he would die in 1904. The rigors of his journey through Siberia also impaired Chekhov's health. In November 1891, coughing attacks and other cold symptoms increased, which of course did not prevent Chekhov from actively volunteering during those months: He participated in collecting donations for the famine victims in the Nizhny Novgorod region and helped with the distribution of the Donate with. In the spring of 1892 a similar effort followed for the farmers in the southern Russian Governorate of Voronezh, who were also plagued by poor harvests and hunger. His experiences in the famine areas, but above all his rejection of charity as a kind of panacea for permanent social grievances, he dealt with in the story Meine Frau at the end of 1891 .

Chekhov in Melichowo

The growing need to have a permanent summer residence in which one could work as undisturbed as possible prompted Chekhov to buy a property for himself and his family in the spring of 1892. At that time it was a completely neglected estate called Melichowo near the place Lopasnja in Ujesd Serpuchow south of Moscow. In March the family moved to Melichovo from their Moscow apartment. There, Chekhov worked again as a doctor and treated the farmers of Melichowo, again mostly free of charge. In addition, he coordinated the prophylactic sanitary measures against the impending spread of a cholera epidemic on a voluntary basis. For his next larger work, the novella Krankenzimmer Nr. 6 (1892), Chekhov's medical experience provided a large part of the material. From 1894 on, Chekhov also volunteered in the village self-government ( Zemstvo ) in Melichowo and later initiated the construction of several elementary schools in Ujesd Serpuchow as patron. Several times he sent extensive book collections to the library in his hometown of Taganrog and the schools on Sakhalin, some of which were donated by publishers, but some of which were purchased at his own expense.

Former country house of the Chekhovs in Melichowo

In the 1890s, Chekhov devoted himself increasingly to the theater as an author: in 1887 he saw the world premiere of his first major play Ivanov , from 1888 to 1889 he also wrote several short one-act plays and the Waldschrat, his next major stage work, which he shared with Uncle in 1896 Wanja , now one of his most famous pieces, revised. In Melichowo, Chekhov also wrote the drama The Seagull , completed in 1895 , which initially failed when it was premiered in St. Petersburg in October 1896 with Vera Komissarschewskaja in the leading role, but later when the two directors Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirowitsch-Danchenko made it on newly founded Moscow Art Theater, received a consistently positive response. Several well-known stories and novels by Chekhov also date from the Melichowo period, including The Black Monk , Rothschild's Violin (both 1894), The House with the Mezzanine (1896) and The Peasants (1897); In the latter, Chekhov made his own, often depressing observations from peasant life in Ujesd Serpukhov as a framework for action.

In March 1897, Chekhov suffered particularly severe lung haemorrhage in Moscow, after which he was admitted to hospital for several weeks. It was also the first time that Chekhov had himself checked for tuberculosis; before that, although he was a doctor himself, he had always refused to receive medical treatment. Some doctors now recommended that he stay on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, known for its mild climate, or in other European countries during the winter months . Chekhov followed this advice and in the autumn of 1897 traveled to the French Mediterranean coast for several months. In September 1898 he went to Yalta in the Crimea and a month later bought a building plot for a new property there. The Chekhov family used the estate in Melichowo less and less after the death of their father Pawel Yegorovich in 1898 and finally sold it in the summer of 1899. Chekhov himself signed a new contract with the German-born publisher Adolf Marx in early 1899, which gave him the rights for 75,000 rubles bought in his works (with the exception of plays). With this money, he had a small house built on the acquired property near Yalta. Chekhov moved there in the late summer of 1899.

Retreat to the Crimea, last few years

Anton Chekhov with Olga Knipper shortly after their wedding in 1901

Even though Chekhov was able to make the acquaintance of a large number of contemporary authors in Yalta, with whom he later became friends - including the revolutionary-minded writer Maxim Gorki - and who also worked there for charitable purposes, he increasingly complained about the desolate and provincial atmosphere Yaltas, which could not be compared with the social and cultural life of Moscow and Petersburg. For example, in January 1899, before moving to the newly built house, he wrote to one of his former classmates: “It's been a week now that it has been raining continuously in Yalta, and I'm bored and I want to call for help. How much do I lose because I live here! ”To counteract the oppressive desolation of provincial life, Chekhov regularly read Moscow and Petersburg news papers and followed with increasing interest the student protests and political unrest in the capital, which were the first signs of the emerging revolution spread all over the country. Despite his health deteriorating again and again, Chekhov was drawn to Moscow again and again, including in September 1898 when he attended rehearsals for a new production of the seagull in the Moscow Art Theater. There he met the actress Olga Knipper (1868-1959), among others , who later often played the title role in his plays on the stage of the art theater.

Chekhov at the age of 42. A watercolor by Valentin Serow

Chekhov and Olga Knipper later met repeatedly in Moscow as well as in the Crimea, where the company of the art theater performed a guest performance program in the spring of 1900. The author, who until then had only known women from short-term relationships, apparently found his great love in Knipper, which is revealed in a rich correspondence between the two of them, which has been almost uninterrupted since their first meeting. In May 1901 they finally married in Moscow; Since Chekhov shied away from a pompous wedding celebration, the ceremony was carried out in secret and without prior notice to relatives. The marriage remained childless after a miscarriage suffered by Knipper in the same year . Also, Chekhov and Knipper could only rarely see each other due to the fact that he had to live in the Crimea for health reasons and she was active as an actress in Moscow (a letter Chekhov to Knipper, where the author, contrary to his habit, wrote the Understanding one's own worries towards one's fellow human beings shows how serious one's health was: “[…] I don't know what to say to you, except for the one thing I've already told you 10,000 times and you , probably, will say for a long time, namely that I love you - and nothing more. If we are not together now, it is not you and not me to blame, but the demon who breathed germs into me and your love of art ").

In the Crimea, Chekhov wrote two other major plays, namely Three Sisters (1900) and The Cherry Orchard (1903), and stories such as Seelchen (1898), In der Schlucht , The Lady with the Dog (both 1899) were also written in the Yalta House. and The Bishop (1902). In general, however, the literary work in Yalta was rather arduous. In the period from 1899 to 1902, Chekhov had to work primarily on putting together a collection of his work for the Marx Verlag. He felt more and more annoyed by the many visitors to his dacha, as well as the increasing number of coughing fits, sweats and breathing difficulties. Chekhov tried largely unsuccessfully to alleviate his progressive tuberculosis disease with the help of trips abroad - he stayed in Nice for a long time in the winters of 1897/98 and 1900/1901 - as well as staying with Olga Knipper in a Kumys health resort near Ufa Immediately after their marriage, the disease, which was considered incurable at the time, was unable to stop. Chekhov's last public appearance, during which he was already visibly marked by his illness, was an author honor in the Moscow Art Theater on the occasion of the premiere of his last play The Cherry Orchard in January 1904 on his 44th birthday. The last story written by Chekhov, The Bride , was completed in the spring of 1903.

Memorial at Anton-Chekhov-Platz in Badenweiler, with a memorial plaque at the former Hotel Sommer (today the Park-Therme Rehabilitation Clinic), where Chekhov died in 1904

At the beginning of June 1904, Chekhov and his wife went to Germany to receive further treatment. After a short stay in Berlin , the two drove to the Black Forest spa town of Badenweiler , as Chekhov had recommended a doctor of German descent from Moscow. Chekhov wrote a number of letters from there to Moscow, in which he described, among other things, the orderly and prosperous, but often boring and "untalented" life of the Germans. After a temporary improvement in his well-being, Chekhov suffered several heart failure attacks in mid-July , the last of which ultimately led to death on the night of July 15. Olga Knipper later described Chekhov's final minutes in her memoirs as follows:

“He woke up shortly after midnight and for the first time in his life asked to fetch a doctor [...] The doctor came and ordered a glass of champagne to be brought. Anton Pawlowitsch sat up and said somehow meaningfully, aloud to the doctor in German (he could only speak very little German!): 'I'm dying…' Then he took the glass, turned to me, […] said: 'Not a long one More champagne drunk… ', drank [the glass] quietly, lay down quietly on his left side and was soon silenced forever. "

Chekhov was transported by train to Moscow and buried next to his father on July 22, 1904 with great sympathy in the Neujungfrauenkloster cemetery (section 2).

Awards and recognitions

Ceremony for the inauguration of the first Chekhov monument in Badenweiler on July 25, 1908
The White Dacha, Chekhov Museum, Yalta
New Chekhov monument in the spa park in Badenweiler (1992)

Chekhov received three awards during his lifetime. In October 1888 he received the Pushkin Prize, endowed with 500 rubles, from the Department of Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences for his anthology In the Twilight , which he had dedicated to the respected novelist Dmitri Grigorovich . At the end of 1899, Chekhov was honored for his voluntary work in the school system of Ujesd Serpuchow with another award, namely with the Order of St. Stanislaus, third degree; however, he did not accept the honor and did not say a word about the honor in his letters. In January 1900, Chekhov was also elected honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, but only two years later, in protest against the arbitrary and politically motivated withdrawal of Maxim Gorki's honorary membership, he resigned his own honorary membership.

On July 25, 1908, four years after his death, Chekhov's first monument was erected in Badenweiler; it was the first ever for a Russian writer outside his homeland. The funding came from a charity performance by the Moscow Art Theater. It was melted down for armament purposes shortly before the end of the First World War in 1918. It was not until 1992 that a new bust of Chekhov was placed on the empty plinth as a gift from Chekhov friends of the Sakhalin island, which he visited at the time. In 1998 the literary museum " Chekhov-Salon " was opened in Badenweiler in the meadow tract of the Kurhaus , which maintains a large number of letters and original documents on the playwright's stay in Germany and his reception.

In Russia and in other successor states of the former Soviet Union , streets in numerous cities are named after Chekhov. The author's name was also given to several places: the former village of Lopasnja and today's city of Chekhov near Moscow, near which the former Melichowo estate of the Chekhov family is located, and the village of Chekhov on Sakhalin are to be mentioned. A health resort near Ufa , the area where Chekhov and his wife stayed for treatment in 1901, is called “Chekhovo”. In 1987, a newly built Moscow subway station was named in honor of the writer Chekhovskaya : It is located near a house that has been preserved to this day, where the Chekhov family last lived before moving to the country.

In another former house of the Chekhovs, on the garden ring near the Barrikadnaja underground station , there is a house-museum of Chekhov. The Chekhov family lived in the two-story house from 1886 to 1890. The museum was opened in 1954 and furnished as true to the original as possible in collaboration with Chekhov's widow Olga Knipper-Chekhova . Ten years earlier, the former country house in Melichowo was converted into a Chekhov Museum. Today it bears the official name of the State Literary-Memorial Museum Reserve AP Chekhov and has an inventory of around 20,000 exhibits, including some original paintings by Levitan and also by Chekhov's brother Nikolai, who was a painter, who died early. There is also a house museum in Yalta on the Crimean peninsula. This is the plot of land with a house bought by Chekhov in 1898, which he had built according to a custom-made plan and which was later given the nickname “the white dacha ” in reference to its external shape . Chekhov, who was considered a passionate hobby gardener, designed the garden according to his exact ideas. The museum contains all of the original furnishings (down to the arrangement on his desk) at the time of his death in 1904 because his sister Maria watched over it, who ran the museum until her death in 1957. There are other Chekhov museums in Taganrog (in the former shop of his father Pawel Jegorowitsch and also in the grammar school that Chekhov attended), in Sakhalin in the city of Alexandrowsk-Sakhalinsky , which Chekhov visited in 1890, and in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and in Sumy, Ukraine, on the former dacha where the Chekhovs spent the summer of 1888 and 1889.

In 1983 the asteroid (2369) Chekhov was named after him.

In 1990 Chekhov was honored with a Soviet 1 ruble commemorative coin on the occasion of his 130th birthday .

Relationship to other well-known artists

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy (right) and Chekhov in Yalta

Of the personalities in Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was undoubtedly Chekhov's most prominent contemporary. As early as 1892, he praised Chekhov's new novella, Sick Room No. 6 , in a letter , which was all the more flattering for Chekhov as Tolstoy was generally very critical of new authors. In March 1899, Tolstoy's daughter Tatiana wrote to Chekhov: “Your 'little soul' is delightful! Father read it for four evenings and says that this work has made him wiser ”. Tolstoy later named Chekhov "one of the few writers who, like Dickens or Pushkin , can be read over and over again", but admitted that he did not like Chekhov's plays. The first meeting of the two authors took place in August 1895, when Chekhov was invited by Tolstoy to his Yasnaya Polyana estate - "I felt at home easily, and conversations with Lev Nikolayevich were easy," Chekhov wrote two months later. There were further meetings, among others, in 1897, when Tolstoy visited Chekhov, who was fighting against tuberculosis, in the hospital in Moscow , and in 1901 at Tolstoy's estate in Yalta .

Chekhov himself admired Tolstoy as an author and repeatedly praised his most famous works such as Anna Karenina or the historical novel War and Peace ; So wrote Chekhov when Tolstoy was critically ill in January 1900:

“I'm afraid of Tolstoy's death [...] If and as long as there is a Tolstoy in literature, [it is] easy and pleasant to be a man of letters; Even if you have to admit that you haven't done anything and are doing nothing, that's not so bad, because Tolstoy does it for all of us. His actions are the justification of all hopes and expectations that are placed in literature. "

Regardless of the great respect that Chekhov always paid Tolstoy as an author, he used to emphasize more and more frequently since the 1890s that he was inspired by Tolstoian philosophy with its ideas of “all-embracing love” and fatalistic submission as well as Tolstoy's exaggerated romanticization of the literary image the Russian peasantry would be increasingly critical. In this context, his letter to the publisher Suworin from 1894 is well known, where it says, among other things:

“Tolstoy's morality [has] stopped moving me, deep down in my heart I am hostile towards it […] Peasant blood flows in my veins, so nobody astonishes me with peasant virtues. I believed in progress from an early age and couldn't help but believe in it, because the difference between the time I was hit and the time I was stopped was terrible [...] consideration and a sense of justice tell me that there is more human love in electricity and steam power than in chastity and the rejection of meat. "

The novella Die Bauern , published in 1897, with its extremely sober and gloomy description of everyday life in Russian village life, is also regarded as a negative answer to some of Tolstoy's stories, in which Tolstoy did not see the farmers themselves, but rather the upper class as the main culprit for the social grievances in the country.

Maxim Gorky

Chekhov with Gorky. Yalta, 1900

The writer Maxim Gorki (1868–1936) had a friendship with Chekhov since they first met in 1899 in Yalta. In general, Gorky previously acknowledged himself in letters as an admirer of Chekhov's talent and recorded this in his essay published in 1905. Chekhov, for his part, rated Gorky's individual works positively (he wrote about Nachtasyl : “[The piece] is novel and undoubtedly good”), although noticeable stylistic differences between the two authors could not be overlooked in Chekhov's utterances. In a letter at the end of 1898 he certified Gorky “a real, a great talent”, but also wrote: “I start with the fact that, in my opinion, you lack restraint. You are like a spectator in the theater who expresses his delight so uncontrollably that he disturbs himself and others while listening ”.

In the last years of Chekhov's life, Gorky also campaigned several times for Chekhov's 1899 contract with the publisher Marx to be terminated - which, despite the 75,000 rubles Chekhov received for the rights to his works, was regarded as extremely detrimental to the author or at least have it renegotiated. Chekhov refused every time.

It should be noted that Chekhov, despite his good relations with Gorky, did not share his political-revolutionary views. Throughout his life he rejected any kind of violence and saw only persistent work and the exploitation of technical progress, but not violent social upheaval, as a way out of social misery. An example of this is Chekhov's following quote from a letter:

"I do not believe in our intelligence, which is hypocritical, false, hysterical, illiterate and lazy, I do not believe it even when it is suffering and complaining, because its oppressors come from their own lap. I believe in the individual, I see the salvation in the individual personalities who are scattered all over Russia - whether intellectuals or peasants - the strength lies in them, although there are only a few [...] Science is always advancing, that Social self-confidence increases, questions of morality begin to worry us and so on and so forth - and all this happens without the knowledge of the prosecutors, engineers, governors, without the knowledge of the intelligentsia en masse and in spite of everything. "

Vladimir Korolenko

The Russian-Ukrainian author Vladimir Korolenko (1853-1921), who began his literary career almost at the same time as Chekhov and is known for his often very psychological stories, met Chekhov in February 1887 and was later considered one of his closest friends (“Ich I am ready to swear that Korolenko is a very good person. Not only running next to this guy, even after him, is entertaining ”, said Chekhov). Later Chekhov gladly supported Korolenko in his charitable activities (among other things in 1891 with the famine relief in the Nizhny Novgorod governorate). One of the best-known aspects of the cooperation between the two authors, however, was their joint resignation from honorary membership in the Academy of Sciences in the summer of 1902, which was intended as a coordinated, high-profile protest against Maxim Gorki's “political unreliability” which had recently been withdrawn.

Chekhov's tombstone in Moscow

Ivan Bunin

The later Nobel Prize for Literature Iwan Bunin (1870–1953) named Chekhov several times as his literary role model, which he admitted in a letter to Chekhov in January 1891 (“[…] You are my favorite writer among contemporary writers”). He met Chekhov in Moscow at the end of 1895 and was often a welcome guest at his house in Yalta in later years. Bunin wrote down his memories of Chekhov in 1904.

Vladimir Gilyarovsky

Chekhov met the well-known everyday journalist and author Vladimir Gilyarowski (1855–1935) while he was a student in the editorial office of an entertainment magazine. Chekhov maintained the friendly relationship with him all his life. As an enormously experienced publicist and connoisseur of people, Gilyarovsky Chekhov provided material for his works several times. Well-known, for example, is the story The Malefactor (1885), the protagonist of which comes from an authentic character Chekhov met on a visit to Gilyarovski's dacha in the village of Kraskowo, southeast of Moscow. Giljarowski later recorded his memories of Chekhov in his book Friends and Encounters , published in 1934 .

Vsevolod Garshin

According to his own statements, Chekhov knew only briefly the writer Vsevolod Garschin (1855–1888), who died early as a result of a suicide attempt , although he repeatedly tried to emphasize his enthusiasm for his talent as a writer . In a certain way, Chekhov is accepted as one of Garschin's literary successors, who also wrote realistic novellas, although Garschin's pessimistic language very differentiated him from Chekhov and his often emphasized belief in progress. Chekhov dedicated his short story Der Anfall , published in 1888, to the subject of prostitution , alluding to two well-known works by Garschin. Chekhov dedicated it to the memory of Garschin and had it reprinted in a specially edited volume that also contained works by other authors.

Maria Yermolova

The actress Marija Yermolowa (1853–1928), at the time the most famous actress in the troupe of the Moscow Maly Theater , was revered by Chekhov in his youth. It is believed that he wrote his first play Fatherless ( Platonov ) for her with the desire to have it staged at the Maly Theater with Yermolova in a leading role. Evidence of this is a draft of a letter found in 1920 together with the manuscript of the play, which Chekhov may have sent to Yermolova as a student. Chekhov did not meet Yermolova personally until 1890 ("After lunch at the star, I still felt star lights around my head two days later," he wrote on February 15). Yermolova had never played in Chekhov's pieces, but she clearly enjoyed the performance of The Three Sisters (Chekhov's sister Maria wrote on February 17, 1903: “[Yermolova] was behind the scenes, enthusiastically praised the play, said she was the first I have now understood what it is - our [art] theater ”).

Isaac Levitan

Levitan's portrait study (1885–86) by Anton Chekhov

Chekhov met the important Jewish-Russian painter Isaak Levitan (1860–1900) around 1880 during his student days through his older brother Nikolai, who studied together with Levitan at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture . Later Levitan was considered to be one of Chekhov's closest friends and his family, and in 1890 even had plans to travel with him to Siberia and Sakhalin. As a landscape painter Levitan just knew to appreciate Chekhov's descriptions of nature as in the novella The Steppe , he also often spent the summer months with the Chekhov family in Melichowo and was inspired by the nature there for some of his paintings. Chekhov, on the other hand, wrote in his usual ironic tone during his first stay in France in the spring of 1891: “The Russian painters are far more serious than the French. Compared to the local landscape painters who I saw yesterday, Levitan is the king. "

In the 1890s Levitan broke his friendship with Chekhov for a few years, which was partly due to the fact that he wanted a woman who in turn was enthusiastic about Chekhov: this was Lika Misinova, a friend of Chekhov's sister Marija and one of those short-term Chekhov's love affairs, which he had several times before he met Olga Knipper and which, as in this case, did not take too seriously. The dispute was intensified by the publication of the story Flattergeist (1892), in which Levitan wanted to have recognized himself in one of the characters and felt insulted by Chekhov. The two later reconciled. For example, Chekhov visited Levitan in the summer of 1895, when Levitan had succumbed to a severe depression and had just attempted suicide ("These few days you spent here were the quietest of the summer," Levitan wrote to him afterwards), and in May 1900 he met Levitan, who was already terminally ill, for the last time in Moscow.

Fyodor Schechtel

Chekhov Library Taganrog

Fyodor Schechtel (1859–1926) , who later became known as the architect and creator of many prominent buildings, studied together with Nikolai Chekhov and Isaak Levitan at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He had also been friends with Chekhov since his student days and in 1902 rebuilt the building of the Moscow Art Theater founded a few years earlier (which performed four plays during Chekhov's lifetime) in its present form. In 1914, Schechtel built the new building for the municipal library in Chekhov's hometown of Taganrog in the Art Nouveau style he preferred . This library, which has existed since the 19th century and now bears Chekhov's name, was a regular visitor of Chekhov's youth before he left for Moscow in 1879.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

The composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was also one of Chekhov's close circle of acquaintances, which was not least due to Chekhov's enthusiasm for music in general and for Tchaikovsky's pieces and romances in particular. Chekhov also incorporated scenes in several of his stories ( My Life , Tales of a Stranger , The Kitten ) in which well-known pieces by Tchaikovsky are mentioned or performed. Chekhov met Tchaikovsky for the first time in December 1888, and a year later he dedicated his new anthology to Mürrische Menschen Tchaikovsky personally. At the time, Chekhov also had plans to write the libretto for Tchaikovsky's future opera Bela, based on the motifs of Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time . However, this project was not realized because Tchaikovsky's early death in 1893 prevented him from composing this opera.

Emile Zola

Chekhov in Nice. A portrait (1898) by Osip Bras , now on display in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery

In a letter by Chekhov to Suvorin from January 1898 it says, among other things: “The Dreyfus affair has been resumed and is going on, but it has not yet been initiated. Zola is a noble soul, and I […] am thrilled with his outburst of anger. France is a wonderful country and it has wonderful writers ”. The background to this statement about the writer Émile Zola (1840-1902), whom Chekhov never met personally, was the so-called Dreyfus Affair , which had just reached its climax when Chekhov spent the winter of 1897/98 in Nice . Chekhov, who showed increased interest in current political events in the last years of his life, also studied the French press in Nice and met the anarchist journalist Bernard Lazare in April 1898 , who also campaigned against the unjustified conviction of Alfred Dreyfus . From Zola's courageous commitment to Dreyfus, including his essay J'accuse ! , Chekhov was visibly impressed. This was reflected in his letters from this period, which also shed light on how Chekhov - who himself never explicitly sought to take a particular position on political matters - saw the need to separate writing from politics:

“Dreyfus may be guilty - Zola is still right because it is up to the writer not to prosecute or prosecute, but even to stand up for the guilty, even if they have already been convicted and are serving their sentence. One will say: But politics? The interests of the state? But the great writers and artists should only concern themselves with politics to the extent that they have to fight it off. There are plenty of prosecutors, prosecutors and gendarmes even without them [...] "

The work

characterization

In the course of his almost twenty-five-year career as a writer, Chekhov published several hundred stories , short stories and feature pages as well as over a dozen plays . Many of the early works from the early 1880s - mainly short stories, joke miniatures, parodies and the like - are characterized by Chekhov's characteristic witty (sometimes, as in Death of the Official (1883), also emphatically satirical ) style, while most of his mature works can be assigned to realism , to which Chekhov's scientific knowledge from his studies and his medical experience as a village doctor contributed significantly.

An original Chekhov manuscript

Most of his important stories revolve around the life of the petty bourgeoisie in Russia at the end of the 19th century, about sin , evil, and the decline of spiritual life and society. The plot, which often has an open ending, is typically tied into a central or southern Russian landscape or a small-town, provincial environment. Many such stories read as deep, tired sighs. The novella, Sick Room No. 6 , published in 1893, for example, uses the example of the closed psychiatry department of a rundown provincial hospital (one of the typical situations in which Chekhov was able to process his own experiences as a doctor) to paint a particularly gloomy picture of Russian life passivity and unconditional (“ stoic ”) adaptation to obvious social grievances. In some of his works, such as the also extremely depressing stories Volodja (1887), Sleep! (1888) or Typhus (1887), Chekhov also shows himself to be a brilliant psychologist who succeeds in describing the thoughts and actions of people who are unintentionally confronted with a critical situation in an equally concise, unmistakable way.

The novella Boring History (1889), which Thomas Mann later particularly praised , is also psychologically constructed , whose first-person narrator, an aging medicine professor , concludes in the face of death how senseless his supposedly fulfilled life, which lacks "a general idea", In the end, the behavior of his relatives and other people, which is characterized by adaptation and follow-up, was and how false. Similar conceptual traits about the meaning of existence and the subjective view of happiness - each from the perspective of very different characters - can also be found in the trilogy The Man in the Sheath , The Gooseberries and Von der Liebe from 1898 as well as from the melancholy snapshot of the story Glück ( 1887) read out. The widespread view that Chekhov criticized the passivity of social life in Tsarist Russia with such stories is only partially true, because Chekhov never taught his readers - he always preferred to show the highly individualized characters and their specific problems in his works, without explicitly evaluating or criticizing their actions. The following quotation from Chekhov's letter from 1888 is an example of this maxim: “I do not believe that writers should clarify such questions as pessimism, God, etc. It is up to the writer to depict who, how and under what circumstances spoke or thought about God and pessimism. The artist should not be the judge of his people and their conversations, but only a dispassionate witness. It will be judged by the jury, that is, the readers. My business is only to have talent, that is, to have the ability to distinguish the important utterances from the unimportant, to illuminate the characters and to speak their language. ”This neutral, distanced observer view, which is typical of Chekhov's work, held Of course, this does not prevent the author from adding certain autobiographical elements to the plot of a number of stories. In the steppe (1888), for example, some childhood memories of journeys through southern Russian and Ukrainian landscapes were processed, in the novella Three Years (1894) the oppressive atmosphere of the fatherly Taganroger junk shop is also reproduced authentically, and in Ariadna (1895) one can - Narrators also recognize Chekhov himself on a boat trip to the Crimea. In one of his longest works, the short novel Das Duell (1891), Chekhov lets a social Darwinist who glorifies violence and who ultimately failed at the end of the story have the say in one of the main characters , thus building on his own interest in Darwin's teachings during his student days.

Chekhov's narrative style was by no means limited to suggested social criticism of any kind or psychological exploration of the spiritual depths of man. The range of subjects that Chekhov used in his work is very broad and ranges from easily digestible, happy situation comedy stories ( It's not difficult to become a father (1887), The Eel Caterpillar (1885), Drama (1887) etc.) or even animal stories directed at children ( Kaschtanka (1887), Bleßkopf (1895)) about disillusioned observations from everyday Russian peasant or petty bourgeois everyday life in times of emerging capitalism ( Bauern (1897), Das neue Landhaus (1898), In der Schlucht (1899) )) up to the direct confrontation with death and the general impermanence of humans ( Gram (1886), Gussew (1890), Der Bischof (1902)). In one of his internationally best-known stories, The Lady with the Dog (1899), which Chekhov wrote in Yalta and whose plot is integrated into the landscape there, Chekhov showed himself in an exemplary manner as a poet who at the same time included this simple love story between two married people Drama with an open ending, which causes both of its main characters to fail again and again due to the senseless pettiness of social existence - a connection to his own great love, which Chekhov was also denied to fully live out because of such "everyday" (in his case: illness) . A number of his works lead the reader to suspect an extremely optimistic Chekhov who, despite all the grievances and setbacks, has not lost faith in the good in people and, above all, in progress, in a better future life. In this context, mention should be made of the miniature Der Student (1894), the profound, philosophical novella The Black Monk (1893) , which is filled with formative landscape shots , and all of them like a lavish homage to the world and work the human race.

Regardless of the subject or the mood, all Chekhov's works have the special feature in common that the focus of the plot is generally on the person whose modes of action and thinking - regardless of whether they seem strange, ridiculous, sad or otherwise - the author always seeks to portray it as an unbiased observer. This preference for the characters' personality over the plot, together with the clear sparing use of narrative strategies ("Brevity is the sister of talent," according to Chekhov himself), and Chekhov's impressionistic inclination towards special points of view ("I've never looked directly at nature I first have to filter the topic through my memory until only what is important and typical remains in the sieve ”) and the renunciation of traditional intrigues are among his most important innovations that make his style significantly different from that of the let other renowned Russian authors of the time stand out. The realistic representation of people from every social class that can be found in every Chekhov story makes Chekhov's oeuvre appear like an extremely truthful documentation of Russian social life at the end of the 19th century.

Title page of the first book edition (1901) by The Three Sisters

In his plays - almost all of which were written after 1885, when Chekhov's literary style had long since matured beyond its purely humorous component - Chekhov largely retained the method of objective description he developed in the stories. In addition, the pieces are characterized by the fact that they are primarily intended to show a tragicomic view of the banality of provincial life and the transience of the small Russian nobility . Most of the people acting there are decent and sensitive; they dream of improving their lives, but mostly in vain, because of the feeling of helplessness and uselessness, of excessive self-pity and consequent lack of energy and willpower. Although the author repeatedly suggests that there is a way out of this apathy, namely through consistent work and useful practical activity, the characters mostly prove to be unable or even unwilling to really move something that is the cause of It is precisely this transience, the increasing mental dulling of those actually intelligent people, that proves.

A special feature of Chekhov's work as a playwright is that he described most of his plays as “ comedies ”, although their plot - apart from the rather simple one-act plays like The Bear or The Marriage Proposal - is not really funny or funny is to be designated. During Chekhov's lifetime, this circumstance often created a lack of understanding not only among the audience, but also among theater directors who worked on the staging of his plays. It was only decades after Chekhov's death that the majority understood that it was primarily the protagonists of the pieces whose behavior should lead to the supposedly “comical”, namely their perceived helplessness and generally their disturbed relationship to reality, as a result of their emotions, actions and above all of their omissions - at least that is the author's intention - seem involuntarily funny. This misunderstanding of Chekhov's concerns was also largely to blame for the failure of the play The Seagull when it was first performed in October 1896. Chekhov's best-known plays are, besides The Seagull, the four-act Uncle Vanya , the drama Three Sisters and Chekhov's last work ever, the comedy The Cherry Orchard . All of these pieces have different courses of action, but they have a lot in common in their structure: the action always takes place in the Russian provinces at the turn of the century, the characters are petty nobles, they ultimately fail in one way or another because of their passivity and theirs distorted sense of reality, but a note of optimism and belief in a better future creeps into the plot (like the yearning-filled formula "To Moscow!", which paradigmatically runs through the entire plot of the Three Sisters , or Petja Trofimov's final sentence “Welcome, new life!” In the farewell scene in the cherry orchard ).

Chekhov, who never wrote a lengthy novel (even though he repeatedly expressed this intention in the late 1880s), exercised an immense influence on the formation of modern novels and drama with his concise, reserved and neutral narrative style. Even today, Chekhov is therefore considered an early master of short stories.

reception

Many of Chekhov's late works were translated into German and other languages ​​while the author was still alive and quickly received international attention. While Chekhov in German-speaking countries, where Russian literature is traditionally associated primarily with novelists such as Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky , was better known for his stage works, his epic work has enjoyed great popularity, especially in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking area, since the early 20th century it there with his characteristic economical narrative in the form of short stories to an existing tradition of short story , initiated by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe met.

Scene from Uncle Vanya , 1945 (with Paul Bildt and others)

The best-known German-language editions include Chekhov's editions of works by the GDR publishing house Rütten & Loening and the Swiss Diogenes publishing house . The latter is currently planning a first complete edition of the work in German, which is being prepared by the Berlin author and translator Peter Urban . In German-speaking countries, Chekhov's plays are often adapted for the theater to this day; The most recent examples include Die Möwe at the Berlin Maxim-Gorki-Theater (2000, directed by Katharina Thalbach ), the Platonow staged at the Schauspielhaus Köln (2003, with Alexander Khuon in the title role), Three Sisters in the Berlin Theater on Kurfürstendamm (2008, with Nicolette Krebitz , Jasmin Tabatabai and Katja Riemann ) or Iwanow at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus (2008/09, director: Amélie Niermeyer , with Christiane Paul , Matthias Leja and others). For Chekhov's 150th anniversary, Frank Castorf directed the play To Moscow! To moskau! , which premiered at the International Chekhov Theater Festival in Moscow at the end of May 2010 and is based on two works by Chekhov - the play Three Sisters and the story The Peasants .

Chekhov's work had a direct influence on several well-known writers and novelists of the 20th century. James Joyce, for example, said he admired Chekhov the most of all Russian writers of his era. He described his dramas as dramaturgically revolutionary in dispensing with an arc of tension and in breaking up the classic drama conventions . For the first time in the history of theater, he saw Chekhov's characters realized as individuals who, in his opinion, do not manage to leave their own world and make contact with one another. For Joyce, Chekhov is the first playwright to grasp an existential loneliness, which ultimately focuses more on life as such than on individual characters. These statements led to various studies of Chekhov's influence on Joyce from both Anglic and Slavic side. James Atherton, for example, found several allusions to Chekhov in Finnegans Wake . Other critics, such as Richard Ellmann or Patrick Parrinder, pointed to stylistic parallels between Chekhov's stories and those of the young Joyce. In doing so, however, they always encountered the problem that there is no indication that Joyce Chekhov's stories (as opposed to the dramas) were known; he even explicitly denied this to his biographer Herbert Gorman. Based on this initial situation, Chekhov's influence on Joyce is now considered to be proven, but difficult to assess.

Another author who is considered to be strongly influenced by Chekhov is Katherine Mansfield , who referred to him as her "master" and also discussed him theoretically several times in her letters and notes. Much debates about Chekhov's influence on Mansfield start from her tale The Child-Who-Was-Tired , an adaptation of Chekhov's Spat Khochetsia . Mansfield clearly takes on Chekhov's story, but changes some important details. There are different opinions as to how this similarity is to be assessed: Elisabeth Schneider described Mansfield's story in 1935 as a free translation of Chekhov into English, while Ronald Sutherland grants it artistic independence. On the other hand, Mansfield's biographer Antony Alpers also mentions plagiarism allegations . It is certain that Mansfield Chekhov first read a German translation in Bad Wörishofen . In the opinion of several critics , her collection of short stories, In a German Pension , which was subsequently created, is stylistically influenced by him. In contrast to Chekhov, however, Mansfield often takes a closer narrative proximity to her characters.

Occasionally Franz Kafka's stories were compared with Chekhov's. Stylistically, they share the tendency towards the greatest possible simplicity and the targeted selection of details, thematically the preference for (in Chekhov's words) “essential and timeless” as well as the focus on the hopelessness of all problems of human existence. However, there is no evidence that Kafka Chekhov's works were known. In the preface to his play Haus Herzenstod, the Irish playwright and Nobel laureate in literature George Bernard Shaw gave points of reference to Chekhov's human studies in the cherry orchard , Uncle Vanya and the Seagull . Chekhov's influence can also be seen in the style of Katherine Anne Porter , Sherwood Anderson , Ernest Hemingway , Bernard Malamud and Raymond Carvers .

Chronological selection of works

Stories, short stories

Until 1888
1889-1903
  • 1889: The Princess (Russian Княгиня )
  • 1889: A Boring Story (also from the notes of an old man ; Russian Скучная история )
  • 1890: Horse thieves (also thieves ; Russian Воры )
  • 1890: Gussew (Russian Гусев )
  • 1891: women (also Yes, the women !; Russian Бабы )
  • 1891: The duel (also a duel ; Russian Дуэль )
  • 1891: My wife (Russian Жена )
  • 1891: In Moscow (Russian В Москве )
  • 1892: Flattergeist (also The Easily Swung , Irrwisch , The Cricket , An Art-Loving Woman ; Russian Попрыгунья )
  • 1892: After the theater (Russian После театра )
  • 1892: In exile (Russian В ссылке )
  • 1892: The neighbors (Russian Соседи )
  • 1892: fear (Russian Страх )
  • 1892: Sick room No. 6 (also a godly institution ; Russian Палата № 6 )
  • 1893: Tale by a stranger (Russian Рассказ неизвестного человека )
  • 1893: Volodja the Great and Volodja the Little (also A Woman's Life ; Russian Володя большой и Володя маленький )
  • 1893: The black monk (Russian Чёрный монах )
  • 1893: Weiberwirtschaft (russ. Бабье царство )
  • 1894: Rothschild's violin (Russian Скрипка Ротшильда )
  • 1894: The Student (Russian Студент )
  • 1894: The literature teacher (Russian Учитель словесности )
  • 1894: On the estate (Russian В усадьбе )
  • 1894: The head gardener's story (Russian Рассказ старшего садовника )

Plays

Scene from the seagull (staged in 2008 at Moscow's Maly Theater )
  • 1878 (?): Platonow (play in four acts; also fatherless ; Russian Безотцовщина )
  • 1884: On the country road . (Dramatic etude in one act ; Russian На большой дороге )
  • 1886: On the harmfulness of tobacco (monologue scene in one act; Russian О вреде табака )
  • 1886: Swan Song (Dramatic study in one act; Russian Лебединая песня )
  • 1887: Ivanov (drama (in the original version "Comedy") in four acts; Russian Иванов )
  • 1888: The Bear (joke in one act; Russian Медведь )
  • 1888: The marriage proposal (joke in one act; Russian Предложение )
  • 1889: Tatjana Repina (drama in one act; Russian Татьяна Репина )
  • 1889: Tragedy against will - From the life of summer visitors (joke in one act; Russian Трагик поневоле )
  • 1889: The wedding (scene in one act; Russian Свадьба )
  • 1889: Der Waldschrat (comedy in four acts; Russian Леший )
  • 1891: The anniversary (joke in one act; Russian Юбилей )
  • 1895: The Seagull (drama in four acts; Russian Чайка )
  • 1896: Uncle Vanya (scenes from village life in four acts; heavily revised version of the Waldschrat ; Russian Дядя Ваня )
  • 1901: Three Sisters (drama in four acts; Russian Три сестры )
  • 1903: The Cherry Orchard (comedy in four acts; Russian Вишнёвый сад )

Others

  • 1890: In Siberia (records; Russian Из Сибири )
  • 1893: Sakhalin Island . (Original title Ostrov Sakhalin , 1893, travel report, translated by Gerhard Dick, edited and commented by Peter Urban). Diogenes, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-257-20270-9 .
  • not dated: diaries, notebooks. Diogenes, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-257-01634-4 .
  • Letters (from the years 1879 to 1904). Winkler, Munich 1971.
  • not dated: The Persian Order and other grotesques with eight woodcuts by Vasily Nikolajewitsch Masjutin , 1922, Welt Verlag, Berlin. printed by Otto von Holten, Berlin C., in German by Alexander Eliasberg

Museums

Adaptations

Film adaptations

Radio plays

Audio books

  • Three sisters Read by Ernst Jacobi, Julia Costa, Cordula Trantow a. v. a. Der Hörverlag, Munich 2003. 2 CDs (running time 130 min.). ISBN 3-89584-706-2
  • Der Kirschgarten Read by Marianne Hoppe, Cordula Trantow, Luitgard Im, Günter Mack, Ernst Jacobi and many others. Der Hörverlag, Munich 2003. 2 CDs (running time 95 min.). ISBN 3-89584-707-0
  • The Lady with the Dog Read by Matthias Haase, Argon Verlag, Berlin 2004. 1 CD (running time 48 min.). ISBN 3-87024-693-6
  • Kashtanka and other children's stories Read by Peter Urban , Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich 2006. 1 CD (running time 85 min.). ISBN 978-3-257-80023-4
  • Verocka . Stories of love. Read by Otto Sander , Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich 2006. 4 CDs (running time 282 min.). ISBN 978-3-257-80902-2
  • An unnecessary victory . Early short stories and a little novel. Read by Frank Arnold , Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich 2008. 7 CDs (running time 425 min.). ISBN 978-3-257-80210-8
  • Story of a stranger Read by Rolf Boysen , Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich 2009. 4 CDs (running time 239 min.). ISBN 978-3-257-80271-9
  • Flattergeist , narrative, read in full by Ernst Schröder, Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2009. 1 CD (running time 60 min.)
  • The lady with the dog , short story, read unabridged by Otto Sander, Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2009, 1 CD (running time 50 min.)
  • A duel , translated from Russian by Peter Urban, read by Ulrich Matthes , Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2010, 4 CDs (running time: 302 min.)

Arrangement for music theater

  • Skripka Rotshilda (German Rothschild's violin ). Opera fragment by Weniamin Fleischmann , supplemented and orchestrated by his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich . Completed in 1944. Concert premiere in 1960 in Moscow, staged premiere in 1968 in Leningrad, both conducted by Maxim Shostakovich .
  • Una domanda di matrimonio (Eng. The marriage proposal ). Opera in one act. Libretto : Claudio Fino and Saverio Vertone. Music: Luciano Chailly. Premiere May 22, 1957 in Milan
  • The Bear (dt. The bear ). Extravaganza in One Act. Libretto: Paul Dehn . Music: William Walton . Premiere June 3, 1967 in Aldeburgh
  • The cherry orchard . Opera in four acts. Libretto and music: Rudolf Kelterborn . Premiere December 4, 1984 in Zurich
  • Tri sestri ( Eng . Three sisters ). Opera in three sequences. Libretto: Claus H. Henneberg and Péter Eötvös . Music: Péter Eötvös. Premiere March 13, 1998 in Lyon
  • Tatiana . Dramma lirico in one act. Libretto and music: Azio Corghi. WP October 20, 2000 in Milan
  • Senja . Opera. Libretto and music: Azio Corghi. WP March 7, 2003 in Münster
  • Impure tragedies and leper dramatists . Satirical chamber opera in five scenes. Libretto and music: Timo Jouko Herrmann . WP June 24, 2004 in Heidelberg
  • The novel with the double bass . Lyric scenes [chamber opera]. Libretto: Michael Leinert . Music: Jürg Baur . Premiere November 25, 2005 in Düsseldorf
  • Swan song . Music-dramatic etude in one act. Libretto: André Meyer. Music: Timo Jouko Herrmann. Premiere June 25, 2006 in Mannheim

Films about Chekhov

literature

sorted alphabetically by author

  • Lydia Avilova: Chekhov, my love. Memories. Blue notes. Vol. 20th Ed. Ebersbach, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-934703-70-4
  • Rosamund Bartlett: Anton Čechov. A biography. Zsolnay, Vienna 2004. ISBN 3-552-05309-3
  • Gerhard Bauer: "Ray of light from broken pieces". Čechov. Nexus. Vol. 56. Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main 2000. ISBN 3-86109-156-9
  • Jean Benedetti (ed.): Anton Chekhov / Olga Knipper , My further dear man. A love novel in letters , Fischer, Frankfurt 2005 ISBN 978-3-10-009503-9
  • Georgi P. Berdnikow: Anton Chekhov - A biography. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1985.
  • Christine von Brühl: The non-verbal means of expression in Anton Čechov's stage work. European university publications. Row 16. Slavic languages ​​and literatures. Vol. 52. Peter Lang, Bern 1996. ISBN 3-631-49062-3
  • Ivan Bunin : Čechov. Memories of a contemporary. Friedenauer Presse, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-932109-38-4
  • György Dalos : The trip to Sakhalin. In the footsteps of Anton Chekhov. European publishing house EVA, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-434-50503-2
  • Ingrid Dlugosch: Anton Pavlovič Čechov and the theater of the absurd. Forum Slavicum. Vol. 42. Fink, Munich 1977. ISBN 3-7705-1594-3
  • Raffaella Fortarel: Attitudes to Life - Beliefs. Ethical positions in the work of Anton Pavlovič Čechov. European university publications. Row 16. Slavic languages ​​and literatures. Vol. 70. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2003. ISBN 3-631-51045-4
  • Matthias Freise: The prose of Anton Čechov. An investigation as a result of individual analyzes. Studies in Slavic literature and poetics. Vol. 30. Rodopi, Amsterdam 1997. ISBN 90-420-0336-7
  • Horst-Jürgen Gerigk : The Russians in America. Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov in their significance for American literature. Pressler, Hürtgenwald 1995. ISBN 3-87646-073-5
  • Natalia Ginzburg : Anton Čechov. One life. Somersault. Vol. 1. Wagenbach, Berlin 2001. ISBN 3-8031-1116-1
  • Michael Haubrich: Typing and characterization in literature. Shown using the example of the short stories by AP Čechov. Liber, Mainz 1978. ISBN 3-88308-007-1
  • Renata Helker: The Chekhovs. Paths to modernity. Edited by the German Theater Museum, Munich. Henschel, Berlin 2005. ISBN 3-89487-502-X
  • Karla Hielscher: Chekhov. An introduction. Artemis introductions. Vol. 34. Artemis, Munich 1987. ISBN 3-7608-1334-8
  • Roswitha Hoffrichter: Representations of nature and space in AP Cechov's stories. 1895-1902. Contributions to Slavic Studies. Vol. 12. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1990. ISBN 3-631-42809-X
  • Vladimir Borisovich Kataev (ed.): Anton P. Čechov - philosophical and religious dimensions in life and in work. Lectures at the Second International Cechov Symposium, Badenweiler, 20. – 24. October 1994. The world of the Slavs, edited volumes. Vol. 1. Sagner, Munich 1997. ISBN 3-87690-675-X
  • Rolf-Dieter Kluge: Anton P. Čechov. An introduction to life and work. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft WBG, Darmstadt 1995. ISBN 3-534-12631-9
  • Volker Müller: A thousand and one passions. Features, scenes, travel pictures, essays from Germany on the Chekhov year. Koch, Rostock 2004. ISBN 3-937179-45-3
  • Vladimir Nemirowitsch-Danchenko and Konstantin Stanislawski : Chekhov or the birth of modern theater. Memories of Chekhov . Edited and translated by Dieter Hoffmeier. Alexander Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-89581-252-1
  • Franz-Josef Ochsenfeld: Anton P. Chekhov, the island of Sakhalin. Cologne medical history contributions. Vol. 66. Hansen, Cologne 1994. ISBN 3-925341-65-X
  • Wolfgang Pailer: M. Gor'kij's early dramas in their relationship to the dramatic work of AP Čechov. Slavist contributions. Vol. 122. Sagne, Munich 1978. ISBN 3-87690-148-0
  • Peter Rippmann: The other Čechov. A pamphlet. Aisthesis essay. Vol. 12. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2001. ISBN 3-89528-316-9
  • Frank Rainer Scheck: Anton Čechov. dtv portrait. dtv. Bd. 31075. dtv, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-423-31075-8
  • Birgit Scheffler: Elements of the Čechovian Dialogue in Contemporary Russian Drama. Slavist contributions. Vol. 318. Sagner, Munich 1994. ISBN 3-87690-584-2
  • Wolf Schmid: Ornamental storytelling in Russian modernism. Čechov - Babel '- Zamyatin. Slavic literatures. Vol. 2. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1992. ISBN 3-631-44242-4
  • Joachim Schnitter: Gardens as Crystallizations of Time and Loss by Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Nabokov . In: Die Gartenkunst  25 (1/2013), pp. 231–238.
  • Gabriele Selge: Anton Čechov's image of man. Materials on a poetic anthropology. Forum Slavicum, Volume 15. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1970.
  • Klavdia Smola : Forms and functions of intertextuality in the prose work of Anton Čechov. Slavist contributions. Vol. 428. Sagner, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-87690-877-9
  • Anja Tippner: Alterity, translation and culture. Čechov's prose between Russia and Germany. Slavic literatures. Vol. 13. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1997. ISBN 3-631-49608-7
  • Henri Troyat : Chekhov - life and work . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt DVA, Stuttgart 1987. ISBN 3-421-06352-4
  • Maria Chekhova: My brother Anton Chekhov. Kindler, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-463-40446-X
  • Kornej Tschukowski : Chekhov, literature and criticism, in: Soviet literature , monthly of the Writers' Union of the USSR, issue 7, 1962, pp. 131-160
    • Kornej Tschukowskij: Chekhov, in Chekhov, works in 3 volumes. Novellas, Stories, Dramas, Vol. 3, Transl. Johannes von Guenther . Heinrich Ellermann , Hamburg 1963, pp. 781 - 850 (a picture of life, with special appreciation of his person)
  • Peter Urban : Čechov Chronicle. Data on life and work. Diogenes, Zurich 2004. ISBN 3-257-01607-7
  • Thomas Wächter: The Artistic World in Čechov's Late Tales. Slavic literatures. Vol. 1. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1992. ISBN 3-631-43844-3
  • Birgit Wetzler: Overcoming the traditional image of women in the work of Anton Čechov (1886–1903). European university publications. Row 16. Slavic languages ​​and literatures. Vol. 40. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1991. ISBN 3-631-44042-1
  • Elsbeth Wolffheim : Anton Čechov. With testimonials and photo documents. Rowohlt's monographs. Vol. 307. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1988. ISBN 3-499-50307-7

Web links

Wikiquote: Anton Chekhov  - Quotes
Commons : Anton Chekhov  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Anton Pawlowitsch Chekhov  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There were seven children in all, but the youngest daughter Yevgenia (* 1869) died at the age of two; see. Berdnikow 1985, p. 8.
  2. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 14.
  3. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 14f.
  4. ↑ Chekhov's letter to Suvorin of January 7, 1889, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, pp. 124f.
  5. ↑ PLATONOW , Schauspiel Stuttgart / Staatstheater Stuttgart, program booklet, October 2005, p. 8.
  6. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 21.
  7. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 32
  8. ↑ a b c M.P.Čechov: Vokrug Čechova . Moscow 1964.
  9. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 64.
  10. ↑ MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 21 f.
  11. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 37.
  12. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 67.
  13. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 71.
  14. ↑ a b Correspondence between Grigorowitsch and Chekhov (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  15. ^ Anton Čechov: Letters in five volumes, Diogenes, Zurich 1979, Volume I, p. 165.
  16. ^ Letter to Polonski dated February 22, 1888, in: Berdnikow 1985, p. 97.
  17. ^ Letter to Suworin of March 9, 1890, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, pp. 168f.
  18. ↑ See e.g. B. Letter to Sister Marija Chekhova dated 23/26 June 1890, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 207.
  19. ^ Letter to Sister Marija Chekhova dated 23/26 June 1890, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 208.
  20. ^ Letter to Suworin dated December 9, 1890, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 213.
  21. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 144.
  22. ↑ a b My-chekhov.ru: biography (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  23. ^ Letter to Suworin dated September 11, 1890, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 211
  24. ^ Letter to Suworin dated December 9, 1890, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 214.
  25. ^ Anton Čechov: Letters in five volumes, Diogenes, Zurich 1979, Volume II, p. 200.
  26. ↑ (Original title Ostrov Sachalin , 1893, translated by Gerhard Dick, edited and commented by Peter Urban ). Diogenes , Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-257-20270-9
  27. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de: Writing exercises on the convict island . Deutschlandfunk , September 18, 2014
  28. ^ Deutsche-tschechow-gesellschaft.de , German Chekhov Society
  29. ↑ Badische Zeitung , Bettina Schulte, January 28, 2015: badische-zeitung.de: A trip around the world for the truth: Chekhov photos from Sakhalin ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  30. ^ Badische Zeitung , Heinz Setzer, head of the literary museum "Chekhov-Salon", Badenweiler, January 29, 2015: badische-zeitung.de: Journey to Hell and Paradise
  31. ^ European publishing house / Rotbuch , Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-434-50503-2
  32. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de . January 18, 2014
  33. ^ Letter to Marija Chekhova of January 16, 1891, in: Troyat 1987, p. 151.
  34. ^ Anton Chekhov, Letters 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, pp. 224f.
  35. ↑ APČechov. Polnoe sobranie sočinenij i pisem. Moscow 1978. Vol. 14-15, pp. 773ff.
  36. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 182.
  37. ↑ Troyat 1987, pp. 161f.
  38. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 280.
  39. ↑ Dunja Efros and others: Chekhov's Women (Russian), reviewed November 25, 2009.
  40. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 302.
  41. ^ Letter to Knipper dated September 27, 1900, in: Troyat 1987, p. 289.
  42. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, p. 306.
  43. ^ Anton Chekhov, Letters 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 494.
  44. ↑ Olga Knipper-Čechova: O APČechove. Moscow 1952
  45. ↑ MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 91.
  46. ↑ See subsection "Vladimir Korolenko".
  47. ↑ Program “International Chekhov Year of Commemoration 2004 in Badenweiler” ( Memento from January 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 965 kB); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  48. ^ Literaturland Baden-Württemberg: Chekhov Salon ; Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  49. ↑ Basic information on museum.ru (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  50. ↑ Basic information on museum.ru (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  51. ↑ Description on chehov.niv.ru (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  52. ↑ Lawka Chekhovych ( memento of October 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian), checked on November 25, 2009.
  53. ↑ Basic information on museum.ru (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  54. ^ Website of the museum in Sumy ( Memento from January 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  55. ^ AP Chekhov's museums (Russian / English); Reviewed April 25, 2010.
  56. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 7783
  57. ^ List of Soviet commemorative coins: Edition 44 (Russian); Reviewed November 25, 2009.
  58. ↑ MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 341.
  59. ^ Letter of March 30, 1899, in: Tolstoj o Čechove, Literaturnoe Nasledstvo, Vol. 68, Moscow 1960, p. 872.
  60. ↑ Tolstoj o Čechove, in: Literaturnoe Nasledstvo, Vol. 68, Moscow 1960, pp. 871ff.
  61. ^ Letter to Suworin of October 21, 1895, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 308.
  62. ^ Letter of January 28, 1900, in: Troyat 1987, p. 279
  63. ^ Anton Čechov: Letters in five volumes, Zurich 1979. Vol. III, p. 133
  64. ↑ M.Gorkij: AP Chekhov; Saint Petersburg 1905.
  65. ^ Letter to Gorky of July 29, 1902, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 448.
  66. ^ Letter to Gorky dated December 3, 1898, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 360f.
  67. ↑ See e.g. B. Letter to Gorki of July 24, 1901, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 433.
  68. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 261.
  69. ↑ Letter to IIOrlow of 22 February 1899 in Anton Chekhov, letters from 1879 to 1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p 370f.
  70. ^ Letter to the poet Pleschtschejew , April 1888, in: MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 144.
  71. ↑ MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 123.
  72. ↑ See references.
  73. ↑ Vladimir Giljarovskij: Druzʹja i vstreči ; Moscow 1934.
  74. ↑ APČechov. Polnoe sobranie sočinenij i pisem. Moscow 1978. Volume 11, p. 393.
  75. ↑ MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , pp. 135 f.
  76. ↑ MPGromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 136.
  77. ^ MP Gromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 148.
  78. ^ MP Gromov: Tropa k Čechovu . Moscow 2004, ISBN 5-08-004111-0 , p. 69.
  79. ↑ Troyat 1987, p. 205.
  80. ^ Official website of the Chekhov Library Taganrog (English); Reviewed July 31, 2015.
  81. ^ Letter to Suworin of January 4, 1898, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 340.
  82. ^ Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought. Selected Letters and Commentary . Harper & Row, Evanston 1973, pp. 306f.
  83. ^ Letter to Suworin dated February 6, 1898, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 344f.
  84. ↑ Thomas Mann: Experiment on Chekhov (1954). In: My Time - Essays 1945–1955. Frankfurt a. M. 1987, p. 264ff.
  85. ^ Anton Čechov: Letters in five volumes, Diogenes, Zurich 1979, Volume I, p. 262.
  86. ↑ The playwright of the everyday: On the 100th anniversary of Anton Chekhov's death , in: Berliner Zeitung , July 15, 2004; Reviewed December 24, 2009.
  87. ↑ Wolffheim 1982, p. 46.
  88. ^ Letter to Alexander Chekhov of April 11, 1889, in: Anton Chekhov, Briefe 1879–1904, Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1968, p. 138.
  89. ^ Letter of December 15, 1897, in: Troyat 1987, p. 236.
  90. ^ Wolf Düwel : Anton Chekhov. Poet of the dawn . VEB, Halle / Saale 1961, p. 10.
  91. ↑ Wolffheim 1982, pp. 106f.
  92. ↑ Berdnikow 1985, pp. 82f., 139f.
  93. ↑ The funny Chekhov evening ( memento from July 31, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ); Reviewed July 31, 2015.
  94. ^ Helene Auzinger: Anton Chekhov. Russia's cheerful and melancholy poet ; German Society for Eastern European Studies, Stuttgart 1960, pp. 3 and 100.
  95. ^ Helene Auzinger: Anton Chekhov. Russia's cheerful and melancholy poet ; German Society for Eastern European Studies, Stuttgart 1960, p. 100.
  96. ^ Friedemann Kohler: Nocturnal light in the workshop: Peter Urban translates Chekhov ( Memento from December 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , in: Die Berliner Literaturkritik, July 23, 2008; accessed on August 17, 2020.
  97. ↑ Spiegel.de: Chekhov's greasy flutter men , checked on December 24, 2009.
  98. ↑ Fehrecke.com: Alexander Khuon ( Memento of February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 974 kB), checked on December 24, 2009.
  99. ↑ Spiegel.de: Unflotter Dreier with Katja Riemann ; Reviewed December 24, 2009.
  100. ^ Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus ( memento of November 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ); Reviewed December 24, 2009.
  101. ↑ Official website of the festival ; Reviewed May 27, 2010.
  102. ^ Neil Cornwell: James Joyce and the Russians , Macmillan: Houndsmills / London (1992), p. 32f.
  103. ^ Antony Alpers: The Life of Katherine Mansfield , Viking: New York (1980), pp. 111f. and 190f.
  104. ^ JF Kobler: Katherine Mansfield. A Study of the Short Fiction , Twayne: Boston (1990), p. 12.
  105. ^ Bert Nagel: Kafka and die Weltliteratur , Winkler: München (1983), p. 344ff.
  106. ^ Helene Auzinger: Anton Chekhov. Russia's cheerful and melancholy poet ; German Society for Eastern European Studies, Stuttgart 1960, pp. 101f.
  107. ↑ Also translated as infirmary No. 6. Translated from Hertha von Schulz, Aufbau, Berlin 1952; This anthology of the same title also contains the stories about women; Farmers; In the ravine; The bride
  108. ^ György Dalos : The trip to Sakhalin. In the footsteps of Anton Chekhov. European Publishing House / Rotbuch, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-434-50503-2 .
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on January 2, 2010 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Чехов, Антон Павлович (Russian spelling); Čechov, Anton Pavlovič (scientific transliteration)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Taganrog , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1904
Place of death Badenweiler