L. Jackson, Chekhov: A Collection of Essays: 20th-Century Views (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967).

R. L. Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993).

S. Koteliansky (tr., ed.), Anton Chekhov: Literary and Theatrical Reminiscences (New York: Blom, 1968).

Virginia Llewellyn-Smith, Chekhov and the Lady with the Little Dog (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).

V. S. Pritchett, Chekhov. A Spirit Set Free (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988).

Donald Rayfield, Anton Chekhov: A Life (London: HarperCollins, 1997).

T. Winner, Chekhov and his Prose (New York: Holt, 1966).

WORKS ON INDIVIDUAL STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

‘The Black Monk’

Paul Debreczeny, ‘“The Black Monk”: Chekhov’s Version of Symbolism’, in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 179–88.

‘The Grasshopper’

George Pahomov, ‘Čexov’s “The Grasshopper”: A Secular Saint’s Life’, Slavic and East European Journal 37:1 (Spring 1993), pp. 33–45.

‘The Student’

Robert Louis Jackson, ‘Chekhov’s “The Student”’, in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 127–33.

‘Ward No. 6’

Andrew R. Durkin, ‘Chekhov’s Response to Dostoevskii: The Case of “Ward Six” ’, Slavic Review 40:1 (1981), pp. 49–59.

‘A Woman’s Kingdom’

Carol A. Flath, ‘Delineating the Territory of Cechov’s “A Woman’s Kingdom” ’, Russian Literature 44:4 (1998), pp. 389–408.

Robert Louis Jackson, ‘Chekhov’s “A Woman’s Kingdom”: A Drama of Character and Fate’, in Thomas A. Eekman (ed.), Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989), pp. 91–102.

CHRONOLOGY




1836   Gogol’s The Government Inspector

1852   Turgenev’s Sketches from a Hunter’s Album

1860   Dostoyevsky’s Notes From the House of the Dead (1860–61)
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov born on 17 January at Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov, the third son of Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, a grocer, and Yevgeniya Yakovlevna, née Morozova

1861   Emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II. Formation of revolutionary Land and Liberty Movement

1862   Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons

1863–4 Polish revolt. Commencement of intensive industrialization; spread of the railways; banks established; factories built. Elective District Councils (zemstvos) set up; judicial reform Tolstoy’s The Cossacks (1863)

1865   Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1864) by Leskov, a writer much admired by Chekhov

1866   Attempted assassination of Alexander II by Karakozov Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment

1867   Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin

1868   Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot

1868   Chekhov begins to attend Taganrog Gymnasium after wasted year at a Greek school

1869   Tolstoy’s War and Peace

1870   Municipal government reform

1870–71 Franco-Prussian War

1873   Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1873–7)
Chekhov sees local productions of Hamlet and Gogol’s The Government Inspector

1875   Chekhov writes and produces humorous magazine for his brothers in Moscow, The Stammerer, containing sketches of life in Taganrog

1876   Chekhov’s father declared bankrupt and flees to Moscow, followed by family except Chekhov, who is left in Taganrog to complete schooling. Reads Buckle, Hugo and Schopenhauer

1877–8 War with Turkey

1877   Chekhov’s first visit to Moscow; his family living in great hardship

1878   Chekhov writes dramatic juvenilia: full-length drama Father-lessness (MS destroyed), comedy Diamond Cut Diamond and vaudeville Why Hens Cluck (none published)

1879   Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1879–80) Tolstoy’s Confession (1879–82)
Chekhov matriculates from Gymnasium with good grades. Wins scholarship to Moscow University to study medicine Makes regular contributions to humorous magazine Alarm Clock

1880   General Loris-Melikov organizes struggle against terrorism Guy de Maupassant’s Boule de Suif
Chekhov introduced by artist brother Nikolay to landscape painter Levitan with whom has lifelong friendship
First short story, ‘A Letter from the Don Landowner Vladimirovich N to His Learned Neighbour’, published in humorous magazine Dragonfly. More stories published in Dragonfly under pseudonyms, chiefly Antosha Chekhonte.

1881   Assassination of Alexander II; reactionary, stifling regime of Alexander III begins
Sarah Bernhardt visits Moscow (Chekhov calls her acting ‘superficial’)
Chekhov continues to write very large numbers of humorous sketches for weekly magazines (until 1883). Becomes regular contributor to Nikolay Leykin’s Fragments, a St Petersburg weekly humorous magazine. Writes (1881–2) play now usually known as Platonov (discovered 1923), rejected by Maly Theatre; tries to destroy manuscript

1882   Student riots at St Petersburg and Kazan universities. More discrimination against Jews
Chekhov is able to support the family with scholarship money and earnings from contributions to humorous weeklies

1883   Tolstoy’s What I Believe
Chekhov gains practical experience at Chikino Rural Hospital

1884   Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck.