cover image Anton Chekhov: A Life

Anton Chekhov: A Life

Donald Rayfield. Henry Holt & Company, $35 (704pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-5747-8

Gorky said of Chekhov that no one understood as clearly as he did ""the tragedy of life's trivialities."" Rayfield certainly does. His biography of Chekhov is rife with tiny details that together create a pointillist portrait of Chekhov, his large family and the legion of friends, hangers-on and ""Antonovkas,"" or female admirers. About halfway through the book, there have been enough of these painstakingly applied points to create a nuanced portrait of an intensely Russian man. Chekhov was the grandson of a freed serf, the son of a brutish and sanctimonious father. His elder brothers were irresponsible drunkards while his numerous friends vacillated between braggadocio and desperate neediness. Perhaps because he could maintain a certain emotional aloofness, Chekhov managed to support his menagerie while writing some of the world's great short stories and plays. Rayfield's careful research into primary sources reveals numerous letters that have been ignored or tactfully bowdlerized. The result is a portrayal of a man rather randier, more put-upon and more human than previously betrayed. This does no disservice, but sometimes the sheer bulk of detail does. Do we really need to know that Chekhov's father made his own mustard or that in the winter of 1892, Chekhov bandaged his publishers' governess's leg after she fell off a wardrobe or even the schedule of family members' endless peregrinations? While this will no doubt be a crucial addition for Chekhov scholarship, a few broader strokes and more background into the rapidly changing politics and society of Russia would have made it more useful for the narodni as well. 24 pages of b&w illustrations not seen by PW (Feb.)