Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius

Blaisdell (Creating Anna Karenina), an English professor at the City University of New York, delivers a penetrating take on Anton Chekhov’s development as a writer. Close readings of Chekhov’s letters illuminate his works and artistic growth in 1886 and 1887, when he was in his mid-20s. One April letter from Chekhov to his uncle Mitrofan about their being apart on Easter provides the occasion to examine the story “Easter Eve,” published that month, in which a ferryman recounts his late friend’s hymns as “harmonious, brief, and complete,” qualities that Blaisdell suggests reveal “Chekhov’s own principles of writing.” The letters chronicle Chekhov’s ascent to literary fame, but Blaisdell notes that this success didn’t translate into financial stability and contends that the awkwardness felt by the protagonist of “The Descendants” (written in September of 1886) when asking for a loan was a feeling Chekhov knew well. Elsewhere Blaisdell tackles the composition of the play Ivanov, Chekhov’s half-hearted engagement to his sister’s classmate, and his long struggle with tuberculosis, seamlessly blending biography and critical analysis to offer a bracing look at a formative period in the life of a literary legend. The result is a stirring portrait of an artist coming into his own. (Dec.)