Chekhov: A Biography

by V.S. Pritchett

A splendid study of Chekhov, this book is primarily an original, sympathetic and wonderfully insightful account of his evolution as a writer, especially of short stories.

Genres: Biography, Russia, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (née Martin). His father, a London businessman in financial difficulties, had come to Ipswich to start a shop selling newspapers and stationery. The business was struggling and the couple were lodging over a toyshop at 41 St Nicholas Street where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after the Queen. Pritchett never liked his first name, which is why he always styled himself with his initials; even close friends would call him VSP.

Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist and unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice had come to Ipswich to be near her sister who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to Derby, and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit, and his easy deceit obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited but life was always precarious; they tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family. They returned to Ipswich in 1910, living for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St. John's School. Subsequently Pritchett attended Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and Dulwich College but he stayed nowhere for very long. When his father went to fight in World War I, Pritchett left school. Later in the war Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, of which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation, and faith healing.

Pritchett was a leather buyer from 1916 to 1920, when he moved to Paris, where he worked as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for the Christian Science Monitor, which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for the paper and for the New Statesman, which later appointed him literary editor.

Pritchett's first book described his journey across Spain (Marching Spain 1928) and Clare Drummer (1929) was about his experiences in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland he met his first wife, Evelyn Vigors, but it was not to be a happy marriage.

Pritchett published five novels but he claimed not to enjoy their creation. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories (The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories (1932)).

In 1936 he divorced his first wife, and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts; they had two children. The marriage lasted until Pritchett's death, although they both had other relationships. His son is the journalist Oliver Pritchett and his grandson (son of Oliver) is the cartoonist Matt Pritchett.

During World War II Pritchett worked for the BBC and the Ministry of Information whilst continuing to submit a weekly essay to the New Statesman. After the war he wrote widely and he started taking teaching positions at universities in the United States: Princeton (1953), the University of California (1962), Columbia University and Smith College. He was fluent in German, Spanish, and French, and published successful biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977) and Anton Chekhov (1988), although he did not know Russian and had never visited the Soviet Union.

Pritchett was knighted in 1975 for his services to literature and became Companion of Honour in 1993. His awards include Heinemann Award (1969), PEN Award (1974), W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990), and Golden Pen Award (1993). He died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Pr...

Reviews

[Zuberino]

চেখভের নির্বাচিত গল্পের পাশাপাশি এই জীবনী পড়তে বেশ ভালোই লাগছে, বিশেষ করে জীবনীকার যখন ভি এস প্রিচেট-এর মত জাঁদরেল লেখক। বলা বাহুল্য, প্রিচেট নিজেই বিংশ শতাব্দীর অন্যতম শ্রেষ্ঠ ইংরেজ ছোটগল্পকার হিসেবে পরিচিত। চমতকার প্রাঞ্জল দ্রুতলয়ের গদ্যে বিবৃত করেছেন চেখভের জীবন ও সাহিত্য। তার চোখ দিয়ে চেখভের আর্ট-কে নতুন করে দেখছি। ভাবতে আরো অবাক লাগে যে এই বই যখন প্রকাশিত হয়, প্রিচেটের বয়স প্রায় নব্বই! শরীরে কত তেজ, অন্তরে কত অনুরাগ, আর চরিত্রে কি রকম নিষ্ঠা আর অধ্যাবসায় থাকলেই এমন একটা কার্য সমাধা করা যায়।

চেখভের নাটক দেখেছি বহুবার - এই শহরে শেক্সপীয়রের পরে যে দুজন নাট্যকারের কাজ সবচেয়ে বেশি মঞ্চায়িত হয়, তারা হলেন হেনরিক ইবসেন এবং আন্তন চেখভ। মনে আছে ২০০৭ সালের বিশ্বকাপ ক্রিকেটে বাংলাদেশ যেদিন ভারতকে হারালো, সেদিনই প্রথম দেখেছিলাম চেখভের নাটক - দ্য সীগাল, প্রধান ভূমিকায় অভিনয় করেছিলেন ক্রিস্টিন স্কট টমাস এবং চিওয়েটেল এজিওফোর (12 Years A Slave খ্যাত)। ১৫-২০ মিনিট পর পর আড়চোখে খেলার স্কোর চেক করে নিচ্ছিলাম মোবাইলে। এরপরে ইভানোভ, আঙ্কেল ভানিয়া, দ্য চেরি অর্চার্ড, থ্রি সিস্টার্স - সবগুলোই দেখার সৌভাগ্য হয়েছে, কিছু কিছু নাটক একাধিকবার। সীগাল এবং আঙ্কেল ভানিয়া সবচেয়ে বেশি ভালো লেগেছে - যদিও সব নাটকেই, সব প্রোডাকশনেই নতুন করে কিছু না কিছু পাওয়ার থাকে।

ছোটগল্পগুলোর সাথে ব্যক্তিগত পরিচয় কম ছিল। "নির্বাচিত গল্প" পড়ে চিরন্তন চেখভীয় সোয়াদটুকু পাচ্ছি, আর প্রিচেটের অনুধাবন এবং বিশ্লেষণও অনবদ্য।

[Joshua Rigsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not quite what I had expected. About 75% of the book is Pritchett summarizing the plot of a short story or play and then trying to extrapolate Chekhov's inspiration for the character or situation based on events from Chekhov's life. It's fine. Just wasn't quite what I was looking for. I learned a lot, and it might be nice to bring in Pritchett's analysis of a story as an additional point of departure for the discussion surrounding a given piece of writing, but it wasn't a biography so much as it was a running critique of the stories. I'll read the Rayfield biography next, to see if it scratches where I'm itching.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a commentary on the stories with a smidgin of biography. But with V.S. Pritchett doing the commenting that's as forgivable as can be. Of particular note is the section dealing with Chekhov's late story (and my personal favourite) 'The Bishop'.

[Jason Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

When we're finally all staring at e-readers and every book ever scanned is residing in a database, this will no longer be an issue, but for now I still have to marvel at the fact that this little classic is out of print. There isn't even have a cover for it, which is kind of like being sent to school without a lunch.

This is old-school criticism/appreciation, with orders to shoot all jargon and theory on sight, and, page for page, still the best work I've ever read on Chekhov. (Also out of print, by the way--the Modern Library's 3-volume edition of the stories, the only selection of his work ever assembled with any sense.)

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pritchett, in a relaxed style, goes through Chekhov’s short stories giving us his thoughts on them.

[Sicofonia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rant alert!!
I normally take my reviews very seriously, but I'll be making an exception with this one.

What an awful book to read. So much so I don't know where to start from. Technically this is not a biography, as the main focus is on the Chekhov's bibliography rather than the man himself.
The problem here is that Pritchett went too far detailing the main Checkhov's stories. By too far I mean this book totally reads like a big spoiler on Chekhov's works. One story after another, Pritchett does what I could only define as "copy-paste" of Chekhov's texts. I think 3/4 of this book are filled with excerpts from Chekhov's writing!!!
Not very creative in my opinion.

To that amount of copied stuff, we have to add the comments from Pritchett himself. Which to me are plain and simplistic for the most part.

I'm leaving it here. If you never read Chekhov before, please, by all means don't pick up this book if you want to avoid spoilers.

[Fern · Rating 4 out of 5]

More an exercise in close reading of Chekhov's stories and plays than a detailed biography although it does tease out the links between the two. Interesting tidbit I gleaned what that Chekhov, after an assignment studying the population of prisons, took a boat back to Moscow via Hong Kong and Singapore. Now I wish there was more information about that trip!

[Pink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a biography, more an assessment of Chekhov's work, placed in the context of his life. Still a fascinating read.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had picked this up a few years ago at some library sale or another, and, as I'll be reading some Chekhov later in the year with one of my Goodreads groups, felt like this was the perfect time to pull it down from my shelves. What led me to buying it in the first place was not just the subject matter, but the author, who was both a prolific critic and short-story writer in the middle part of the last century. Because of that, I had expected this to be mostly a critical piece on Chekhov's stories and plays.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the author or the editors really knew what sort of book they wanted--biography or criticism. In the end, it turns out to be a lukewarm edition of both. What it most reminded me of was a long introduction to a comprehensive collection of Chekhov's work, and then inflated to book length.

What's here isn't bad (hence the three stars): There are the broad outlines of Chekhov's life, and much of it I was unfamiliar with. There is also a familiarization with some of Chekhov's major stories and plays, interwoven with the events of his life as he wrote them, but the stop far short of criticism and are little more than synopses. I was a little irritated that several of these stories were spoiled for someone like me, who hadn't read them yet. Pritchett is quite the fan--like all books about books, it seems to me that often the best thing the author can do is transfer some of his enthusiasm for the work to the reader, and nudge them toward reading the originals for themselves. He does, though some of his passion is muted when he talks glowingly of something that I have read but did not respond in the same was as Pritchett. That makes me take his other recommendations with a grain of salt.

The bottom line: I was going to read Chekhov no matter what, and I'm going to read him still. Knowing the outlines of Chekhov's life (or filling in a few details that I didn't know) isn't going to change that, and Pritchett's cheerleading is part of a larger chorus that already had me convinced that it was worth my time to get better acquainted with the Russian author. In the end, I think if someone wanted a biography, they might turn to something more comprehensive, and if they were looking for criticism, they might look to something that focused purely on that aspect.

There was one helpful phrase in the book, though, that if I hadn't read, I probably wouldn't have known. One of Chekhov's main supporters complained to him once that his story didn't take sides and solve the problem. Chekhov's response:

"You confuse two things: Solving a problem and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist. In Anna Karenina and Yevgeny Onegin not a single problem is solved, but they satisfy you completely because all the problems are correctly stated in them."

Going forward and reading more of Chekhov's work, this last quote will be something I keep in mind.

[jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I happily-- and shamelessly-- devoured Pritchett's biography on the life of Anton Pavlovich, which included enlightening commentary on the latter's work...

Needless to say, I continue to harbor intense admiration for Chekhov, who said: “Man will become better when you show him what he is like.” This same individual also made self-deprecating remarks about his own work: "[I am] a good writer, but not as good as Turgenev." :P

In short: delightful man; excellent book.

[ReadingwhileWalking · Rating 3 out of 5]

A master short story teller recounts the life and works of another master short story teller --- but at 88, Pritchett's powers were fading and the account is not as gripping as it promises to be. For the most part, it is a retelling of many of Chekhov's stories and plays, interwoven with spurts of his life, gleaned from the letters, showing how the two inter-relate. There are, of course, some masterful insights; for instance, of A Dreary Story: 'The characters are talking but not listening -- they are fundamentally isolated -- a characteristic of Chekhov's stories'; or, of The Peasants: 'Like so many of his finest stories [it] is the tale of a journey of departure and return, by which the leading characters are changed.' Occasionally, very occasionally, Pritchett himself intrudes as when he declares that 'Chekhov's sexual temperature was low.' (Was it? Or had Pritchett's been 'high'?) But for the most part this is a fair, touching and balanced -- if somewhat distant-- portrait of a great writer and a great man: a doctor, atheist, animal lover, conservationist, good son to his mother, with a great sense of humour and an immeasurable talent, who died, far too young, of TB.

[Brett Beach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, low level biography that mixes in close readings of the short stories to give context.

[Mark Zadrozny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Either to the stories, the plays certainly, and biographies, I return to Chekhov. Pritchett prefers the stories and says so right off. So to the stories again next. And to a Russia.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a straightforward biography rather than one that used Chekhov's writing to shed light on his life. This was heavy on recounting the stories and, to a lesser extent, the plays.

[Greg Gerke]

What a story, abandoned by his family when he was 16...

[Connie Kronlokken]

Pritchett takes the old-fashioned method of telling the stories Chekhov wrote and threading them into his life. A good story, a short life.