Unconventional Chekhov

I read a very interesting book by Donald Rayfi eld, “Anton Chekhov: A Life”. And the image of Chekhov as a subtle, intelligent man wearing pince-nez, a brilliant master of short stories and tales, one of the theater reformers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries literally collapsed for me. More precisely, the assessment and signifi cance of Chekhov’s works have fully stood the test, but only scraps of the image of Anton Pavlovich as a person and an individual remain. Then I thought, what kind of image was this, where did I get it from? Frankly speaking, I must admit that this image is in some sense not mine; I did not set myself a conscious task to understand Chekhov’s personality and critically comprehend his numerous letters (more than 5,000) and comments on his life by other researchers. I suppose, this image, like for most other readers, was formed in me under the infl uence of ideological versions of the life of the great writer at school literature lessons, radio and television programs, and fi nally, reading the works by Chekhov (after all, when you read, you involuntarily create, almost out of thin air, a certain image of the author). It turned out that this generalized, conventional, and far-fetched image has nothing to do with the information about Chekhov’s life that I found in Rayfi eld’s book. This made it obvious that the author’s works and the author’s image are completely diff erent things.