Anton Chekhov
A Life

Anton Chekhov's Life Was Short, intense, and dominated by battles -- either with his dependents or with the tuberculosis that was to kill him at forty-four. He was one of the greatest playwrights and short story writers ever born, but he was torn between medicine and literature, as he was between family and friends, between a longing for solitude and a need for company. Donald Rayfield spent more than five years combing the Chekhov archives all over Russia, uncovering thousands of documents and letters from lovers, friends, and family, most of them never published before. They tell of a life far more entangled and turbulent than we ever previously suspected, and in Rayfield's hands allow us to look past Chekhov's restrained, ironic facade to appreciate the full heroism of his brief but prodigiously creative life. Rayfield's biography combines an extraordinarily rich cast of characters -- Gorky, Tolstoy, and Tchaikovsky, to name just three -- with a vivid portrait of Russia and Russian society one hundred years ago. He also delves deeply into the emotions, ideas, conflicts, and experiences that Chekhov transmuted from his life into his enduring art.