In 1890 Chekhov visited Sakhalin Island off
the coast of Siberia and later wrote
Island Sakhalin (1891-94), an account of his visit. Chekhov's frail health caused
to move in 1897 from his small country estate near Moscow to the warmer climate
of the Crimea. He also made frequent trips to health resorts in Western Europe.
Near the end of the century he met the actor and producer Constantin
Stanislavski, director of the Moscow Art Theater, which in 1898 produced
Chekhov's famous play The Sea Gull (1896; trans. 1923). This association of
playwright and director, which continued until Chekhov's death, led to the
production of several of his one-act dramas and his other well-known plays,
Uncle Vanya (1899; trans. 1923), The Three Sisters (1901; trans. 1923),
and The Cherry Orchard (1904; trans. 1923).
Chekhov died at a German spa on July 14/15,
1904.Modern critics consider
Chekhov one of the masters of the short-story form. He was largely responsible for
the modern type of short story that depends for effect on mood and symbolism
rather than on plot. His narratives, rather than having a climax and resolution, are
a thematic arrangement of impressions and ideas. Using themes relating to the
everyday life of the landed gentry and professional middle class, Chekhov portrayed
the pathos of life in Russia before the 1905 revolution: the futile, boring, and lonely
lives of people unable to communicate with one another. Some of Chekhov's best
known stories are included in the posthumously published Darling and Other
Stories (1910; trans. 1916-22)
In the Russian theater Chekhov is preeminently a representation
naturalism. His plays, like his stories, are studies of the spiritual failure of characters
in an aristocratic society that is disintegrating. To portray these themes Chekhov
developed a new dramatic technique, which he called "indirect action." He
concentrated on subtleties of characterization and interaction between characters
rather than on plot and direct action. In a Chekhov play important dramatic events
take place offstage. Some of his plays were originally rejected in Moscow, but his
technique has become accepted by modern playwrights and audiences, and his
plays appear frequently in theatrical repertories.
Picture courtesey of Culver Pictures, Inc.