The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov, Anton
Pavlovich
(
1860
–
1904
), Russian dramatist and short story writer. He studied medicine in Moscow, where he began writing short humorous stories for journals. Among the greatest of his mature stories are ‘A Dreary Story’ (
1889
), ‘Ward No. Six’ (
1892
), ‘My Life’ (
1896
), ‘Ionych’ and the trilogy ‘The Man in a Case’, ‘Gooseberries’, and ‘About Love’ (all
1898
), and ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’ (
1899
).
Chekhov's
first successful play was Ivanov (
1887
), and he then wrote several light one-act comedies. His status as a dramatist, however, rests on his four late plays. The Seagull (
1895
) was produced at the State Theatre of St Petersburg, but its originality was badly understood by the actors and the first night was a disaster. After this Chekhov's plays were staged by the Moscow Art Theatre, founded by
Konstantin
Stanislavsky
and
Vladimir...
[The entire page is 471 words long]
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