Chekhov

How does Veeky Forums feel about this illustrious writer?

he's great. absolutely outstanding during his times, he'd probably make it to all-time hall of fame if he lived bit later and sneaked onto the tide of tome-producing novelists.

Great sitcom writer. Larry David of his age

One of the wisest, most empathy-filled and human-nature-knowledgeable among all writers of all time. A treasure as an artist. His perception about human beings as they really are is perhaps the most acute and correct in the history of literature.

He also did one of the best analyzes I know about the colossal Tolstoy:

>"I admire him greatly. What I admire the most in him is that he despises us all; all writers. Perhaps a more accurate description is that he treats us, other writers, as completely empty space. You could argue that from time to time, he praises Maupassant, or Kuprin, or Semenov, or myself. But why does he praise us? It is simple: it's because he looks at us as if we were children. Our short stories, or even our novels, all are child's play in comparison with his works. However, Shakespeare … For him, the reason is different. Shakespeare irritates him because he is a grown-up writer, and does not write in the way that Tolstoy does."

Good post.

Chekhov's stories are as wonderful (and necessary) now as when they first appeared. It is not only the immense number of stories he wrote—for few, if any, writers have ever done more—it is the awesome frequency with which he produced masterpieces, stories that shrive us as well as delight and move us, that lay bare our emotions in ways only true art can accomplish.

One of the most overrated playwright of all time. A couple decent short stories. His work always seemed to benign to me… idk.

Have you read The Peasants, In the Ravine, The Murder, Ward number 6 and Lady with a Dog? If you did not, please do it now: you will not regret it. Above all read Peasants and In the Ravine: some of the best portraits of poverty and misery ever written.

Haven't read Ward Number 6, which I might look into, but for the rest, yes, I did, although I read these stories in french. I just think Chekhov isn't for me.

Pleb

It’s ok, user. Sometimes we and a particular author were not meant for each other, but that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you or with that author. Appreciated your honesty. Be well

Hum hum, if you say so. I can live with your judgment.

ps : he's still minor

I read a Lady with a Dog and was mostly disappointed. Didn't really get the feel that I should read another story of his.

Cheers, I share that feeling. I must admit reading his plays just makes me want to go back to Ibsen... couldn't really tell you why.

Sentimental stuff that doesn’t tell you much. He is very emphatic, but that’s it. He didn’t have the grand topics of, say, Turgenev or Tolstoj.

Veeky Forums what translation do I get?

>comparing him to other writers

This isn’t a contest, you faggot. His work alone is fantastic and should be lauded as such.

>translation

Chekhov? More like Jekhov

>and necessary

What the fuck does this mean. I always see marmey negresses on Salon and Huffingtonpost say it

His romantic stories are his most anodyne and least entertaining IMO, but I might only think that because I don't relate to them at all. I suggest you try something like The Student or The Duel, because he really is a great writer with an unparalleled talent for psychological description and emotional drama

>'Yalta was hardly visible through the morning mist; white clouds stood motionless on the mountaintops. The leaves did not stir on the trees, crickets chirped, and the monotonous hollow sound of the sea, rising up from below, spoke of the peace, of the eternal sleep awaiting us. So it must have sounded when there was no Yalta, no Oreanda here; so it sounds now; and it will sound as indifferently and monotonously when we are all no more. And in this constancy, in this complete indifference to the life and death of each of us, there lies hid, perhaps, a pledge of our eternal salvation, of the unceasing movement of life upon earth, of unceasing progress towards perfection. Sitting beside a young woman who in the dawn seemed so lovely, soothed and spellbound in these magical surroundings—the sea, mountains, clouds, the wide open sky—Gurov thought how in reality everything is beautiful in this world when one reflects: everything except what we think or do ourselves when we forget our human dignity and the higher aims of our existence."
-- an objectively perfect passage from Lady with a Dog

Best short stories of all time.

i think he should have taken his gun and killed himself

...

He's good but I'm not a fan

To all the people saying the don't get him or don't care for him, please revisit his stories in a few years. Finish college, get a job, lose someone you love. Hit your mid twenties, then give him another shot. He'll feel different because you'll be different. He gets better with age because he assumes you know how certain things feel that you can only feel when you've been around long enough.

It happened to me. I didn't get him or care very much for some of his stories the first time around. But when I got a little older those same stories became my favorites. Every year im still alive I understand a little more about what he managed to capture. Almost nobody else has ever done the same.

Nabokov's recommendation of him is 100% correct. He is great.