The Steppe and Other Stories, 1887-91 Read online

  The depression of 1889 that found expression in this morbidly ironic if heroic work was only deepened by the increasing boldness of Russia’s critical rabble, who disapproved of Chekhov’s distancing himself from Tolstoyan certainties while adopting a Tolstoyan type of plot. Some critics talked of plagiarism, others of ‘unprincipledness’. The more understandable failure of The Wood Demon added humiliation: Chekhov was told by the distinguished actor Lensky to abandon the theatre since he did not even know the alphabet of drama composition.

  The old conflict between the doctor and the writer was renewed, and Chekhov decided on a response which might have been suicidal, both literally and artistically: in spring 1890 he set off on a journey across the freezing damp of Siberia to the penal colony of the island of Sakhalin, Russia’s Devil’s Island and Botany Bay all in one, to investigate the conditions of the prisoners there. The primary motive was certainly to demonstrate that he had more compassion for suffering humanity than any of the critics who accused him of indifference, of refusing solutions to the problems raised; the journey was also a flight from the inordinate demands of relatives, friends and mistresses; lastly, it was an emulation of heroism, notably of the conquistador–explorer, discoverer of the wild horse, Nikolay Przhevalsky, who had died in Central Asia and whose obituary Chekhov had just written, in the form of an anonymous panegyric.

  The dividing line between Chekhov’s early and mature work is not a neat fracture point: ‘A Dreary Story’ has features of the mature work, just as the very last pieces take up themes, scenery and mood of the early work. If there is a temporal and spatial cut-off point, then the journey to Sakhalin marks it. Some elements disappear for ever from Chekhov’s works. First, there are now very few saints, heroes, villains, monsters. Evil resides not in single human beings, or even in families, but in a system. It was the prison colony, prisoners and guards, who made a collective evil: the most horrific psychopath, murderer or hangman was as an individual the usual mix of the sympathetic and horrible. The reluctance to judge and categorize becomes absolute in Chekhov’s work after Sakhalin. Secondly, a poetic element that reminded Russian readers of the elegies of Pushkin and the metaphysical lyrics of Fyodor Tyutchev (1803–73), Russia’s most powerful if least prolific lyrical poet, enters Chekhov’s works. The absolute certainty of death forces characters to look at life with disbelief and even with renewed capacity for enjoyment.

  A year spent abroad also gave Chekhov the benefits of a sabbatical. Very little of his work refers to, let alone is set in, Siberia or Sakhalin. (Likewise, for all his frequent and prolonged visits to St Petersburg, Chekhov only once set a story there.) On his return to Russia Chekhov did not settle down; the following spring he set off with the Suvorins on his first visit to Western Europe (another setting which he uses very rarely, despite four further visits, including almost an entire year spent in Nice). Not until summer 1891 did he suddenly revert to frenzied work, simultaneously writing The Island of Sakhalin, his largely unrecognized magnum opus, one of his longest, most ambitious stories, ‘The Duel’, and a number of explosive shorter stories.

  The obsession with death in Chekhov’s work reaches its apogee in a story which appears at first sight to be just a fictionalized account of observations on his long sea journey, as he returned with a pet mongoose from Sakhalin to Odessa. The ship was carrying largely soldiers and guards returning from duty in the prison colony. One of them dies and the body is thrown to the sharks in the Indian Ocean. The tubercular man’s last moments and the extraordinary green light that suffuses the sky as his body goes overboard, however, makes ‘Gusev’ a work that, once read, cannot be forgotten. The green light (in fact, the colour green) is to permeate all Chekhov’s work, right until Natasha’s dress in Three Sisters, as a horrible omen of death.

  The frantic summer spent in a magnificent country house at Bogimovo is perpetuated in many later Chekhov stories (for example, ‘The House with the Mezzanine’). The mansion still stands but is now a mental hospital for survivors of shellshock in World War II – as though Ward No. 6 had come back into reality – and its gardens are now a pig farm. It is as though Chekhov had determined to recover all critical reputation that he had lost during his absence over the previous year and a half. The result, ‘The Duel’, was the last major work he published in Suvorin’s New Times; over the autumn and winter of 1891 the story took up all the space that Suvorin had reserved for fiction, thus earning the resentment of those writers who now had no outlet.

  ‘The Duel’ is Chekhov’s most conventional work: it has two heroes who represent opposing sets of opinions, one precise, scientific and western, the other vague, intuitive and Slavonic; their ideological and moral enmity is crystallized in a duel which ends farcically. What clearer reminiscence of Turgenev could there be? It is hard to think of a major Russian writer of the nineteenth century who did not write a story that could have been entitled ‘The Duel’. Likewise, Chekhov has placed his characters in the claustrophobic setting of a Black Sea garrison town (suspiciously like Sukhumi), a Wild West setting (one might sometimes think) that lends itself to the taut plotting. The build-up to the duel (and even its apparently salutary consequences for both parties) also follows classical lines. The differences, however, are more important than the similarities to conventional duelling novels. For one thing, neither party’s views command much respect: they are rationalizations on the one hand of the aesthete (Layevsky) and his incurable idleness and on the other hand of the scientist (von Koren) and his involuntary hyperactivity. What distinguishes this ideological battle from those in Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy or Turgenev is Chekhov’s subtle authorial preference for a third way, the way of the inarticulate or uncomprehending non-combatants. The absurd mediator Dr Samoylenko declares that if he stopped loving a woman he would make it his life’s work to hide the fact, unlike the ‘honest’ cad Layevsky or the ‘honest’ bluff Przhevalsky-like conquistador von Koren. The Tatar innkeeper does not care whether people worship Allah or Jehovah, as long as they respect God. The naïve deacon interrupts the duel (over which an ominous green light is falling) and prevents a clear resolution of conflict. And not least, a group of indigenous Caucasians sit in a circle on the other side of a river by which the querulous Russians are picnicking and tell each other stories in a language which none of the colonists can understand. Doctor, deacon, Tatar and Abkhaz natives have an instinctive talent for peace and harmony which no proponent of any ideology can achieve – in this lies the novel and powerful import of ‘The Duel’ and it is thus that Layevsky’s absurd self-justification seems to accuse Tolstoy of hypocrisy and misogyny and scientific rationalism of brutal destructiveness. Above all, like Maupassant’s best prose, so the narrative of ‘The Duel’ is dominated by the sea: it drowns out soliloquies, it drives back the travellers. As in Chekhov’s mature work – ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’, for example – the sea represents a natural force not just more powerful but more significant than us, and those that recognize natural forces (the Tatar, the deacon, the doctor, the Abkhaz) have the advantage over the articulate intellectuals who occupy the foreground of the narrative.

  If Sakhalin was the greatest trauma in Chekhov’s life, its consequences took time to make their mark. ‘Ward No. 6’, perhaps the most pessimistic work that Russian literature has ever produced, was not written until Chekhov himself had prepared what he hoped would be his own idyllic interlude, a refuge in the country. ‘The Duel’ with its reconciliation, even partial redemption, with its cast all alive at the end of the story, is a deceptively happy conclusion to the first period of Chekhov’s development.

  FURTHER READING

  Gordon McVay (tr.), Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters (London: Folio Society, 1994), the best selection and translation of letters.

  Brian Reeves (tr.), The Island of Sakhalin (Cambridge: Ian Faulkner, 1993).

  SECONDARY LITERATURE: GENERAL BOOKS

  Toby W. Clyman, A Chekhov Companion (Westport/London: Greenwood Press, 1985), a very valuable
if expensive collection of essays, with extensive bibliography.

  P. Debreczeny and T. Eekman (eds), Chekhov’s Art of Writing: A Collection of Critical Essays (Columbus: Slavica, 1977).

  Thomas Eekman (ed.), Critical Essays on Anton Chekhov (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989), 208 pp.

  W. Gerhardie, Anton Chekhov: A Critical Study (London: Macdonald, 1974), ‘Bloomsbury’ Chekhov, but well-informed.

  R. L. Jackson, Chekhov: A Collection of Essays: 20th-Century Views (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967).

  R. L. Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: North-western University Press, 1993).

  S. Koteliansky (tr., ed.), Anton Chekhov: Literary and Theatrical Reminiscences (New York: Blom, 1968).

  Virginia Llewellyn-Smith, Chekhov and the Lady with the Little Dog (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).

  V. S. Pritchett, Chekhov. A Spirit Set Free (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988).

  Donald Rayfield, Anton Chekhov: A Life (London: HarperCollins, 1997).

  T. Winner, Chekhov and his Prose (New York: Holt, 1966).

  WORKS ON INDIVIDUAL STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  ‘A Dreary Story’

  Shoshana Knapp, ‘Herbert Spencer in Čexov’s “Skucnaja istorija” and “Duel”: The Love of Science and the Science of Love’, Slavic and East European Journal 29:3 (Fall 1985), pp. 279–96.

  ‘The Duel’

  Andrew Durkin, ‘Allusion and Dialogue in “The Duel” ’ in Robert Louis Jackson (ed.), Reading Chekhov’s Text (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 169–78.

  ‘Gusev’

  Milton Ehre, ‘The Symbolic Structure of Chekhov’s “Gusev” ’, Ulbandus Review, New York, 2:1 (Fall 1979), pp. 76–85.

  ‘The Kiss’

  Nathan Rosen, ‘The Life Force in Chekhov’s “The Kiss” ’, Ulbandus Review, New York, 2:1 (Fall 1979), pp. 175–85.

  ‘The Steppe’

  Martina Bjorklund, Narrative Strategies in Čechov’s ‘The Steppe’: Cohesion, Grounding and Point of View, Turku, 1993.

  Jerome H. Katsell, ‘Čexov’s “The Steppe” Revisited’, Slavic and East European Journal 22 (1978), pp. 313–23.

  ‘Verochka’

  Joseph Conrad, ‘Čexov’s “Verocka”: A Polemical Parody’, Slavic and East European Journal 14 (1970), pp. 465–74.

  CHRONOLOGY

  1836

  Gogol’s The Government Inspector

  1852

  Turgenev’s Sketches from a Hunter’s Album

  1860

  Dostoyevsky’s Notes From the House of the Dead (1860–61) Anton Pavlovich Chekhov born on 17 January at Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov, the third son of Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, a grocer, and Yevgeniya Yakovlevna, née Morozova

  1861

  Emancipation of the serfs by Alexander II. Formation of revolutionary Land and Liberty Movement

  1862

  Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons

  1863

  4 Polish revolt. Commencement of intensive industrialization; spread of the railways; banks established; factories built. Elective District Councils (zemstvos) set up; judicial reform Tolstoy’s The Cossacks (1863)

  1865

  Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1864) by Leskov, a writer much admired by Chekhov

  1866

  Attempted assassination of Alexander II by Karakozov Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment

  1867

  Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin

  1868

  Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot

  1868

  Chekhov begins to attend Taganrog Gymnasium after wasted year at a Greek school

  1869

  Tolstoy’s War and Peace

  1870

  Municipal government reform

  1870–71 Franco-Prussian War

  1873

  Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1873–7) Chekhov sees local productions of Hamlet and Gogol’s The Government Inspector

  1875

  Chekhov writes and produces humorous magazine for his brothers in Moscow, The Stammerer, containing sketches of life in Taganrog

  1876

  Chekhov’s father declared bankrupt and flees to Moscow, followed by family except Chekhov, who is left in Taganrog to complete schooling. Reads Buckle, Hugo and Schopenhauer

  1877–8 War with Turkey

  1877

  Chekhov’s first visit to Moscow; his family living in great hardship

  1878

  Chekhov writes dramatic juvenilia: full-length drama Father-lessness (MS destroyed), comedy Diamond Cut Diamond and vaudeville Why Hens Cluck (none published)

  1879

  Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1879–80). Tolstoy’s Confession (1879–82) Chekhov matriculates from Gymnasium with good grades. Wins scholarship to Moscow University to study medicine Makes regular contributions to humorous magazine Alarm Clock

  1880

  General Loris-Melikov organizes struggle against terrorism Guy de Maupassant’s Boule de Suif Chekhov introduced by artist brother Nikolay to landscape painter Levitan with whom has lifelong friendship First short story, ‘A Letter from the Don Landowner Vladimirovich N to His Learned Neighbour’, published in humorous magazine Dragonfly. More stories published in Dragonfly under pseudonyms, chiefly Antosha Chekhonte

  1881

  Assassination of Alexander II; reactionary, stifling regime of Alexander III begins Sarah Bernhardt visits Moscow (Chekhov calls her acting ‘superficial’) Chekhov continues to write very large numbers of humorous sketches for weekly magazines (until 1883). Becomes regular contributor to Nikolay Leykin’s Fragments, a St Petersburg weekly humorous magazine. Writes (1881–2) play now usually known as Platonov (discovered 1923), rejected by Maly Theatre; tries to destroy manuscript

  1882

  Student riots at St Petersburg and Kazan universities. More discrimination against Jews Chekhov is able to support the family with scholarship money and earnings from contributions to humorous weeklies

  1883

  Tolstoy’s What I Believe Chekhov gains practical experience at Chikino Rural Hospital

  1884

  Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. J.-K. Huysmans’ À Rebours Chekhov graduates and becomes practising physician at Chikino. First signs of his tuberculosis in December Six stories about the theatre published as Fairy-Tales of Melpomene. His crime novel, The Shooting Party, serialized in Daily News

  1885–6

  Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilich (1886) On first visit to St Petersburg, Chekhov begins friendship with very influential Aleksey Suvorin (1834–1912), editor of the highly regarded daily newspaper New Times. Chekhov has love affairs with Dunya Efros and Natalya Golden (later his sister-in-law). His TB is now unmistakable Publishes more than 100 short stories. ‘The Requiem’ is the first story to appear under own name and his first in New Times (February 1886). First collection, Motley Tales

  1887

  Five students hanged for attempted assassination of Tsar; one is Lenin’s brother Tolstoy’s drama Power of Darkness (first performed in Paris), for which he was called nihilist and blasphemer by Alexander III Chekhov elected member of Literary Fund. Makes trip to Taganrog and Don steppes Second book of collected short stories In the Twilight. Ivanov produced – a disaster

  1888

  Chekhov meets Stanislavsky. Attends many performances at Maly and Korsh theatres and becomes widely acquainted with actors, stage managers, etc. Meets Tchaikovsky Completes ‘The Steppe’, which marks his ‘entry’ into serious literature. Wins Pushkin Prize for ‘the best literary production distinguished by high artistic value’ for In the Twilight, presented by literary division of Academy of Sciences. His one-act farces The Bear (highly praised by Tolstoy) and The Proposal extremely successful. Begins work on The Wood Demon (later Uncle Vanya). Radically revises Ivanov for St Petersburg performance

  1889

  Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata (at first highly praised by Chekhov) Chekhov meets Lidiya A
vilova, who later claims love affair with him. Tolstoy begins to take an interest in Chekhov, who is elected to Society of Lovers of Russian Literature ‘A Dreary Story’. The Wood Demon a resounding failure

  1890

  World weary, Chekhov travels across Siberia by carriage and river boat to Sakhalin to investigate conditions at the penal colony (recorded in The Island of Sakhalin). After seven months returns to Moscow (via Hong Kong, Singapore and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)) Collection Gloomy People (dedicated to Tchaikovsky). Only two stories published – ‘Gusev’ and ‘Thieves’. Immense amount of preparatory reading for The Island of Sakhalin