CHEKHOV BECOMES CHEKHOV

Two years in the life and work of the Russian master.

According to Blaisdell, a professor of English at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough College, the years 1886-1887 were momentous for Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). At 26, he maintained a full-time medical practice and was already revealing early symptoms of tuberculosis, yet he also published hundreds of stories and humor pieces for popular St. Petersburg newspapers. While he was also feeling pressure to support his expansive family, he was carefully honing what would become his signature Chekhov-ian style, and he transitioned from his previous pseudonym, Antosha Chekhonte. At this time, writes Blaisdell, “in full command of his literary powers, Chekhov had written more short stories in total than he would in the rest of his productive life.” Among his more memorable works from this period are the short story “The Kiss” and the play Ivanov. Blaisdell relies on a similar approach that he employed with his 2020 title, Creating Anna Karenina. Throughout, he draws from Chekhov’s personal correspondence and references several previous biographies in conjunction with close readings of his numerous stories. “I have tried to show how closely connected his own experiences are to his stories,” writes Blaisdell, “which he adamantly (but disingenuously) denied; for another, I have tried to convey the ‘artistic pleasure’ so many of his stories continue to give us.” While this approach may have worked effectively in the previous book, which focused on one iconic novel, the results here are more scattershot. In trying to connect Chekhov’s correspondence to fragments and distillations of such a wide assortment of stories, the narrative often fails to cohere, yielding a somewhat tiresome reading experience. Though Blaisdell offers meaningful insights into Chekhov’s life and writing, the book is unlikely to attract casual readers of Chekhov.

An earnestly researched effort to reveal fresh perspectives of Chekhov’s life and work that overshoots its mark.