New Glimpses of Chekhov
FARRELL, JAMES T.
New Glimpses of Chekhov The Unknown Chekhov. Translated with an introduction by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. Noonday. 316 pp. $450. Reviewed by James T. Farrell Author, "Studs Lonigan," "The Face of time"...
...The early humorous pieces contain only faint intimations of the mature Chekhov, but they are interesting to read because of this...
...One gains fresh insight into how the man developed into a writer of such magic and simplicity...
...There is much humor—though tinged with pathos and sadness—in Chekhov's stories and plays...
...The landscape is vividly evoked...
...Read together with David Magarschack's recent biography, it reveals a new and unknown Chekhov...
...Chekhov always deprecated his early humorous writings, which appeared in the Moscow press...
...In this instance, he handles it with feeling and insight...
...They forecast a feature of Chekhov's work which has been rather widely overlooked...
...taken all together, they help give us fresh insight into Chekhov...
...These include humorous stories and sketches written in his youth...
...Reviewed by James T. Farrell Author, "Studs Lonigan," "The Face of time" and many other novels The Unknown Chekhov contains writings of Anton Chekhov which have not hitherto been published in English...
...One reads this now, however, with deep sadness...
...and his humor frequently gave expression to this revulsion against the dreary banality that drags down so much of human living and feeling...
...A situation like this was a fairly characteristic one for Chekhov...
...And Chekhov expresses his hopes of a great future for Siberia...
...A man visits old friends in the country...
...The reader will find touches of this here, and he will see intimations of this talent in the immature early writings of Chekhov which Avrahm Yarmolinsky selected for inclusion in this volume...
...This book also contains some excellent Chekhov stories which should have appeared in English long ago...
...her new husband thinks only of how he will develop the place and become an efficient farmer...
...The selections are printed in the order in which they were written...
...journalistic pieces, and an account of his journey across Siberia...
...full-length, mature stories which bear the stamp of the man's genius...
...The latter is part of the book Chekhov wrote about his journey to the prison island of Sakhalin...
...As in all of Chekhov's best writing, the plot is slight...
...Finally, the travelogue of Chekhov's journey across Siberia is highly interesting...
...One of these, "A Visit to Friends," deals with the decay of the landed gentry which was so clearly brought out in The Cherry Orchard...
...There are vignettes of travelers encountered en route, peasants, Siberian mail-carriers and ferrymen...
...One very short story of two printed pages, "A Fragment," is a miniature Chekhov masterpiece, concisely setting down the pathos of banality...
...What gives Chekhov his great value is his insight, his great humanity, his conciseness of expression and his seemingly miraculous ability to capture mood and atmosphere in a few swift passages...
...He can no longer feel as he once did, and he cannot fall in love with a young girl who would marry him...
...Once he had been close to them, but that was in the past...
...The young bride reacts with imagination and sympathy...
...In Chekhov's day, Siberia was a prison land, and he wrote of this with pity and indignation...
...The story is moving and tender, but there is also a quality of firmness in it...
...But the Siberia of Stalin and Malenkov, by sheer force of contrast, turns the Siberia which Chekhov described into a paradise...
...This book should interest all lovers of Chekhov...
...Samples of these, not previously available to us, are included in this volume...
...As Gorky pointed out in a reminiscence about him, Chekhov reacted strongly against banality...
...his humor...
...Another of the best pieces in this volume is "Other People's Misfortune," a tale of a young couple who are looking for a house in the country and come upon an unfortunate family who are forced to sell because they are on the verge of ruin...
...Suggestions of the feeling in that play are to be found in this newly-published story...
Vol. 37 • May 1954 • No. 21
