Creativity of Chekhov Anton Pavlovich. List of the best works

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Chekhov's work is unique. Figuratively speaking, he is one of the titans of golden Russian literature of the late 19th century, the founder of a new creative method. Anton Pavlovich is also considered an unsurpassed playwright. His works contributed to the real rise of the Russian national theater. They are still extremely desirable on the stages of the most conceptual theaters in Russia and the world.

Classics are appreciated by classics

Leo Tolstoy highly appreciated the work of Chekhov. Lev Nikolaevich claimed that Anton Pavlovich is a unique writer on a global scale. His characterization of the author of The Seagull is full of delight: “Chekhov is Pushkin in prose!” An eminent novelist called him an incomparable artist who created forms of writing that he had not seen anywhere else.

The creative method of Anton Pavlovich found its response on the shores of Foggy Albion. The English playwright and writer John Galsworthy noted that Chekhov had an exceptionally beneficial effect on English literature. Thanks to him, the themes of creativity were rethought, in particular, by Bernard Shaw. For example, his "Heartbreaking House" is called a play about Britain "in the Russian style"

About the writer's creative method

Indeed, Chekhov became an innovator who refused to involve the characters in an action imposed from the outside, from the artificial creation of intrigue, from the author's deliberate giving of entertainment to his work. In return for all this, Anton Pavlovich shifted the main focus in his works to more subtle matters. In the plot of his works, the first violin was played by the changes in the state of mind of the hero, the dynamics of his opposition to circumstances, everyday routine.

At the head of his art, Anton Pavlovich put the idea of making the world better, cleaner, higher. Chekhov's work, following this principle, seeks to awaken the "living soul" in the reader. The classic in the work simply shows the person what he is. The author does not flirt with his audience, does not try to touch it, does not embellish anything. His favorite characters are educated people who reduce themselves to a life of a case based on lies and an unsatiated womb, as well as representatives of the people, reduced by poverty and bullying to a state of indifferent stupidity.

It is also important to focus on the fact that Chekhov's work follows the principles he discovered:

1. Brevity of thought classic calls the sister of talent for good reason. He prefers a concise, restrained narrative. He is confident in his reader, who, in his opinion, will find the meaning himself, even if the work is complex.
2. In Chekhov's things always a significant roleseemingly small details. They are not just present in the works, but serve as a hint at his main, cornerstone ideas.
3. Anton Pavlovich's style is characterized by impartiality of description, for he is convinced that the reader should draw conclusions.
4. Chekhov almost never wrote for children ("Kashtanka" and "White-fronted" are exceptions). He believed that for reading a child simply should choose the best of the literature "adult".

However, having formulated a general view on the work of the classic, it would be logical to trace the evolution of the formation of his creative method. The object of our study will be the biography and work of Chekhov.

First creative experience

Anton Chekhov was born on January 17, 1860 in Taganrog into a poor merchant family. Here he graduated from the city gymnasium. Even in the senior classes, he, with the activity of an adult author, was published in the popular magazines "Alarm Clock", "Dragonfly", "Shards". This is how Chekhov earned money from a young age, which was critically needed for the family.

Meanwhile, fate was preparing a difficult test for the young man: at the age of seventeen, he suffered a severe inflammation of the peritoneum, which, according to one version, is considered the first manifestation of his tuberculosis disease. According to another version, expressed by Professor V. I. Razumovsky, Anton Chekhov had the misfortune to get infected precisely at the university classes of the medical faculty.

Since 1879, the young Chekhov began a difficult and laborious study at Moscow University and intense journalistic activity. ByAccording to the memoirs of Anton Pavlovich, it was quite difficult to combine classes with the most active creative activity, chasing two birds with one stone - medicine and literature. The fact is that he and his parents, four brothers and sister lived in Moscow in a small apartment. Moreover, relatives who arrived suddenly were often embarrassed by Chekhov, who was striving to write.

His humorous stories were compiled in the collection "The Misfits and the Complacent" (1882), which was not published for reasons of censorship. The first failure only inspired the beginning writer. Later, in a characteristically condensed formulation, he will say about his personal motivation for work: “An idle life cannot be clean.”

Then this intense rhythm of life will lead to an exacerbation of the disease. In 1884, from letters to the publisher of the journal "Oskolki", twenty-four-year-old Chekhov complains of a fever and the inability to continue medical practice. He focuses entirely on literary activity. In 1884, his collection Tales of Melpomene was published under the pseudonym Antosh Chekhonte, and in 1886 - Motley Stories. In the second book, Chekhov placed humorous stories, or rather, parodies. Here his talent manifested itself in the genre of comic detective. The author tries himself in many genres. He is experimenting. And he succeeds: his parodies of popular books are a success.

However, the future classic is still interested in serious literature. This is how Chekhov wrote the following story. "Vanka" (1886) tells the story of a nine-year-old orphan, an apprentice shoemakerAlyakhin, an exploited and discriminated child, calling on his grandfather Konstantin Makarych to take him out of this “science craft”. The orphan boy is bullied by senior apprentices, he is beaten and dragged by the hair by the shoemaker himself. A boy writes on Christmas Eve. Memories and hopes, drawn by his imagination, are vividly conveyed to readers by Chekhov. Vanka is a child, and he sends his letter with childish touching naivety "to the village of grandfather." Accordingly, the reader understands that Konstantin Makarych will never read it, and nothing will change in the boy's difficult life.

Accomplished writer Chekhov

Since 1885, serious literary publications began to cooperate with him: "Russian Thought", "Severny Vestnik". The stories "Name Day", the stories "Steppe", "A Boring Story", "Kashtanka" by Chekhov are published. In 1887, two collections of novels and short stories were published (“Innocent Speeches” and “At Twilight”), in 1888 - “Stories”, in 1890 - “Gloomy People”. Recognition comes to him. In 1888, the writer was awarded the small Pushkin Prize (half).

It is characteristic that most of the works of this author, even out-of-genre, the author's talent is provided with popularity appropriate to their level. For example, Chekhov's "Kashtanka" is loved by many generations of children. It has been filmed multiple times. It would seem that it could be simpler than a story about how a dog (a mixture of a dachshund and a mongrel) first lost its owner, and then, having almost become a circus, suddenly found him. Everything is Chekhov's simple: there are no wizards or mermaids. However, the story is invariably loved by children.

Journey to Sakhalin

It is noteworthy that the biography and work of Chekhov show in him a person not only extremely observant, but also very active and inquisitive. In 1890 he went on a trip to Sakhalin. He displays his impressions of an almost three-month journey through Siberia in a series of essays “From Siberia”. Then the writer spends another three months on Sakhalin, where he tries to understand the psychology and life of convicts, and, finally, returns to Odessa by sea, visiting the ports of Hong Kong, Fr. Ceylon, Singapore, Turkey. Based on the travel materials, he begins a four-year work on a book of essays "Sakhalin". Arriving home, he buys the picturesque estate Melikhovo in the Moscow province.

Melikhovo - understanding Sakhalin observations. A new stage of worldview

The biography and work of Chekhov, according to literary critics, are decorated with a very special period, named in tune with his estate "Melikhov". At that time, with a special flair for the classic, Anton Pavlovich felt the changes in society associated with the displacement of feudal bourgeois relations, and also realized the ugliness of the reactionary policy being pursued. However, not only on the Sakhalin collection is Anton Pavlovich working, who has finally become we althy in his newly acquired picturesque estate.

The popularity of a truly democratic writer is huge. Buyers literally sweep books with the inscription A. P. Chekhov "Stories and Tales" from the shelves. In the first year of the Melikhovsky period of creativity, the conceptual story "Ward No. 6" was completed. PowerfulChekhov's unique image of a terrible gray leper town, where everything creative has long been strangled, where only a hospital and a prison are "sights", fell upon readers with all the merciless truth, making them think: "Why, it's WE that are …". Lawlessness, the stronghold of which in the hospital is Dr. Ragin, who rejected the principles of humanism, his death (retribution by faith) makes one think about how people should actually live.

Chekhov's new works clearly testified to a clearly progressive unique writer who has risen to a new stage of creativity.

Melikhovo. Awareness of the plight of the peasantry

Anton Pavlovich, thanks to many hours of daily work, has become a truly insightful master. He learned to see the very essence of what was daily before the eyes of millions of his compatriots, but was not realized by them.

Russia was essentially a peasant country. It was in Melikhovo that he managed to notice what the Narodnik gentlemen were silent about. A. P. Chekhov follows the life of the factory villages of Kryukovo and Ugryumovo inquisitively. According to eyewitnesses, the stories “Case from practice”, “Indian kingdom”, depict real people in detail, including the world-eaters - merchants Khrymins, who in reality were “even worse.”

Chekhov opened peasant Russia to the reading public. Behind the demagogy, covered by lies about the love of the Narodniks and their understanding of the aspirations of the peasants, there was a conspiracy of silence. It was hacked by Chekhov with his story "Men". In it, the classic said inthat peasants often "live worse than cattle." In their mass, they are terribly "poor, unkempt, drunk, dirty." They have underdeveloped spiritual qualities, they are often “afraid and suspect” of each other. And these people suffer from their violated human rights, from their humiliated human dignity. They need to be educated, their rights must be protected!

Chekhov created with inspiration. Contemporaries recall that the light in his office in Melikhovo was often on all night long.

Various classic palette

How varied the palette of this master is illustrated by the fact that in a series of serious works Chekhov suddenly writes the story “White-fronted” for children. Actually, none of the literary critics expected that the “engineer of human souls” would suddenly create a story of an out-of-genre nature. And the answer is simple: he loved children. The tragedy did not close him: the great writer, suffering from tuberculosis, could not have his own children. However, he took care of the children of the peasants, building schools for them at his own expense.

He is a versatile writer. A convinced realist, under the influence of a nervous shock caused by his terrible dream, suddenly creates an exciting and romantic work "The Black Monk", where the problems of genius and creation are subtly woven.

In addition to hard realistic, Chekhov's works are also created with elements of autobiography (the story "My Life"). In the story "A House with a Mezzanine" and "Gooseberry", the classic tells about diametrically different aspects of the capitalization of villages: the ruin of "noble nests" and the lack of spirituality of the new "masters of life", merchants. Lastthe said story, together with "The Man in the Case" and "About Love", constitutes a trilogy.

About several "Melikhov" plays

In Melikhovo, Anton Pavlovich creates a brilliant play "Uncle Vanya". How capaciously he expresses in it human ingratitude and the hopelessness generated by it! Uncle Vanya faithfully serves the owner of the estate, the professor, receiving a meager salary from him. The owner decides to sell it, not caring about the fate of the person "whom he has tamed" (the last phrase is from Exupery's The Little Prince).

Reflections on the ways of art lead the playwright to create a new masterpiece - the play "The Seagull". In it, Anton Pavlovich, on the storylines of different heroes, leads the viewer to an understanding of what real art is: a deeply unique path for its adherent, the path of hard work of the soul, full of disappointments and sacrifices. He is found by the heroine of the play, Nina Zarechnaya, who steadily follows her calling and becomes an actress. It is characteristic that the images of this work are real people, guests of Melikhovo, and the storylines of the play largely echo their fates.

Y alta period of creativity

In 1898, the illness of the classic worsened, and he and his family moved to Y alta. Until November 1899 (while the house was being built), Anton Pavlovich left for Moscow, where he rented an apartment. The constructed dacha has one significant drawback for a sick person: it is cold in it in winter. The builders laid out the stove incorrectly. Entries in the writer's diary indicate that in winter the temperature in his office was 11-12 degrees.

The writer clearly did not like it in Y alta. In addition, here he was deprived of the fresh agricultural food familiar to Melikhovo. Things got better when Sister Maria Pavlovna came from time to time. However, this did not happen often.

The classics were written in Y alta, according to his own recollections, much worse than in Melehovo. In 1901, he wrote the play "Three Sisters", the stories "Lady with a Dog", "Bishop". According to Melikhovsky impressions, the final work of the "engineer of human souls" was created in 1903 - the play "The Cherry Orchard". It is characterized by the visualization of the future of Russia in the form of a cherry orchard.

In the last years of life, the disease intensified. The writer died on July 2, 1904 in the German spa town of Badenweiler.

Conclusion

Chekhov's books have entered our lives since childhood. These are the creations of a dreamer who, at the end of the 19th century, managed to convincingly show his compatriots with his works that one should live differently. He was a staunch opponent of all discrimination and at the same time a unique master of the word. Anton Pavlovich called for building a new life, fragrant and beautiful, like a cherry orchard.