Of all Russian writers, Chekhov is one of the best liked and most easily appreciated. Yet because his work is subtle and understated, we need help to understand
The description 'definitive' is too easily used, but Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov merits it unhesitatingly. To quote no less an authority than Michael
To illuminate the mysterious greatness of Anton Chekhov’s writings, Janet Malcolm takes on three roles: literary critic, biographer, and journalist. Her close
"Chekhov's keen powers of observation have been remarked by both memoirists who knew him well and scholars who approach him only through the written record and
Maxim Gorky said that no one understood -- the tragedy of life's trivialities -- as clearly as Anton Chekhov, widely considered the father of the modern short s