When I first came to read the work of Anton Chekhov, I recognized that he held a quality that distinguished him from the many writers I read, and that is authenticity. There are quite very few writers that are interested in turning real life stories and characters into literary works, and take a very old and primitive literary model – such as a moral fable – and apply it in a different and original way. Chekhov knew that complexity should lie much deeper in the characters and the story rather than in the overall piece of work. He understood the defects of human perception and judgment, and as such, his works always challenge the superficial reading of a literary work that merely classifies characters into “good” and “evil”. In ‘The Grasshopper’, for example, Chekhov takes Krylov’s famous fable about the grasshopper and the ant and applies it to human characters. In Chekhov’s story, Olga is the frivolous grasshopper that is drawn to the extraordinary world of art, while her doctor husband, Dymov, is the ordinary, hardworking and honorable ant. However, despite the simplicity of the original tale, Chekhov delves much…
What Was The Life of A Russian Writer in Egypt? Review of ‘Anton Chekhov and the Lady With the Little Dog’
September 11, 2019
