(1860–1904). The stories and plays written by Anton Chekhov describe in almost sociological detail the Russian society of his day. However, modern readers value his works chiefly for their deep insight into human emotion. Such is his subtlety that it is often difficult to decide whether a particular work is a comedy or a tragedy.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on Jan. 29 (Jan. 17 according to the calendar in use at the time), 1860, at Taganrog, Russia, a port on the Sea of Azov. In 1879, after completing secondary school, he moved to Moscow. There he qualified as a physician and began to write humorous short pieces for journals. The first fruit of his literary maturity was an autobiographical story called “Step” (“The Steppe”), published in 1888. In 1890 he set off for remote Sakhalin Island, a penal colony off the Pacific coast of Siberia, where he researched and wrote a classic study of the penal system.
In 1892 he moved to the village of Melikhovo, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Moscow, where he lived until 1898. During this period many of his finest short stories were published, including “Palata No. 6” (“Ward Number Six”) and “Sosedi” (“Neighbors”) (both 1892), “Chorny monakh” (“The Black Monk,” 1894), “Ubiystvo” (“Murder”) and “Ariadna” (“Ariadne”) (both 1895), “Moya zhizn” (“My Life,” 1896), and “Chelovek v futlyare” (“The Man in a Case,” 1898).
Following an attack of tuberculosis, Chekhov retired in about 1898 to the resort city of Yalta on the Crimean coast. In search of an even milder climate he made frequent visits to the French Riviera. Despite these efforts, the disease took his life at Badenweiler, Germany, on July 15 (July 2), 1904.
During the last seven years of his life Chekhov gave four dramatic masterpieces to the world. Dyadya Vanya (Uncle Vanya) (finished about 1896) is a reworking of an earlier Chekhov play. Chayka (The Seagull) was first performed in 1896. Tri sestry (Three Sisters) dates from 1901 and Vishnyovy sad (The Cherry Orchard) from 1904. Chekhov also wrote thousands of letters that are now esteemed as literature.