CHEKHOV: A Spirit Set Free

by V.S. Pritchett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 1988

With only passing references to Chekhov's great dramas, the singular Pritchett (The Tale Bearers, 1980; The Turn of Years, 1982) examines the writer's diverse body of short fiction, splicing together the life and art and shedding bright, affectionate new light on the great Russian poet of lite. Chekhov, like Dickens, was abandoned early by family, literally held ""ransom"" by his father's creditor as collateral for debts unpaid. Hence ""lonely but self-reliant"" for life, Chekhov earned his genius the hard way, winning a grant for medical school at Moscow University, supporting himself as a newspaper hack, honing precise, often autobiographical short stories, which, Pritchett persuasively documents, contained the seeds of his later great dramas. But the demands of joint careers took a heavy toll. The public-minded doctor was the victim of numerous ailments, and took to travel both to save his health and to satisfy his writer's instinct to know Russian life. Most fascinating, for example, was a long trip to Sakhalin Island, a penal colony where Chekhov witnessed a flogging and later wrote the story ""Gusev"" after seeing two men buried at sea. The point for Pritchett is that Chekhov intuited the burden of changing Russian life in his own ascent from peasant roots to famous aristocrat: it was after his notoriety was achieved and he moved to a country home that he conceived the nostalgic mood of loss and remorse that colored The Cherry Orchard. Pritchett graciously acknowledges borrowings, especially from Donald Rayfield's Chekhov: The Evolution of His Art, but as usual he is his own best critical source. Astonishingly, Pritchett was born four years before Chekhov died, making this caring study a tribute to the lasting genius of both.

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION