Creativity Chekhov Anton Pavlovich. List of the best works

Chekhov's work is unique. Speaking figuratively, 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 unbeatable playwright. His works contributed to the real rise of the Russian national theater. They are still highly desirable on the stages of the most conceptual theaters of Russia and the world.

Classic classics

Leo Tolstoy highly appreciated the work of Chekhov. Lev Nikolaevich claimed that Anton Pavlovich is a writer unique on a world scale. His characterization of the author of The Seagull is full of delight: "Chekhov is Pushkin in prose!" An outstanding novelist called him an incomparable artist who created such forms of writing that he never met.

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

On the creative method of the writer

Indeed, Chekhov became an innovator, refused to involve the heroes in the externally imposed action, from the artificial creation of intrigue, from deliberately giving the author of his work entertaining. In exchange for all this, Anton Pavlovich shifted his main emphasis in his works to more subtle matter. In the plot of his works, the first violin was played by changes in the hero's mental state, dynamics of his confrontation with circumstances, everyday routine.

At the head of his art Anton Pavlovich put the idea of making the world better, cleaner, higher. Chekhov's creativity, following this principle, seeks to awaken the "soul live" 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 life based on a lie and a hungry womb, as well as representatives of the people, brought by poverty and mockery to a state of indifferent dullness.

It is also important to emphasize that Chekhov's work follows principles that are open to him:

1. The classic is called the sister of talent, not for nothing. He prefers a tight, restrained narrative. He is confident in his reader, who, in his opinion, will find the meaning, even if the work is complicated.
2. It seems that small details always play a significant role in Chekhov's affairs. They are not just present in works, but serve as a hint of the main, corner-stone of his ideas.
3. The style of Anton Pavlovich is characterized by the impartiality of the description, for he is convinced that the reader should make the conclusions.
4. Chekhov specially did not write for children ("Kashtanka" and "Belolobiy" - exceptions). He believed that to read the child simply should choose the best of the literature "adult".

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

The first creative experience

Anton Chekhov was born January 17, 1860 in Taganrog in a poor merchant family. Here he graduated from the city gymnasium. Even in graduation classes, he, with the activity of an adult author, was published in popular magazines "Alarm Clock", "Dragonfly", "Shards". So he earned money from a young age, critical for the family, Chekhov.

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

Since 1879 for the young Chekhov, a difficult and time-consuming study at Moscow University began and intense journalistic activity. According to the memoirs of Anton Pavlovich, it was quite difficult to combine classes with the most active creative activity, chasing two hares, medicine and literature. The fact is that he lived with his parents, four brothers and a sister in Moscow in a small apartment. And those who arrived suddenly relatives were often hampered by an aspiring writer to write Chekhov.

His comic stories were compiled by the collection "Shalopei and the Benefactors" (1882), which was not published for reasons of censorship. The first failure only inspired the novice writer. Later, in a characteristic concise formulation, he will say about his personal motivation for work: "A life can not be clean".

Then this intense rhythm of life will exacerbate the disease. In 1884, from letters to the publisher of the magazine Oskolki, twenty-four-year-old Chekhov complained of a fever and the inability to engage in further medical practice. He focuses entirely on literary activity. In 1884 his collection "Fairy Tales of Melpomene" was published under the pseudonym of Antosh Chekhonte, and in 1886 - "Colored Stories". In the second book Chekhov placed humorous stories, more precisely - parodies. Here his talent manifested itself in the genre of a comic detective. The author tries himself in many genres. He is experimenting. And the desired is possible: his parodies on popular books are a success.

However, the future of the classic is still interested in serious literature. This is what Chekhov wrote the following story. "Vanka" (1886) tells of a nine-year-old orphan, an apprentice of the shoemaker Alyakhin, an exploited and discriminated child, calling on his grandfather Konstantin Makarych to take him from this "science to the craft". Over the boy, an orphan, the senior apprentices are bullied, he is beaten and dragged by the hair by the shoemaker himself. The boy writes on the Christmas night. Memories and hopes, drawn by his imagination, brightly convey Chekhov's readers. Vanka is a child, and he sends his letter with a childlike touch of naivety "to the village of grandfather." Accordingly, the reader understands that Konstantin Makarych will never read it, and nothing will change in the hard life of the boy.

The writer Chekhov

Since 1885, serious literary publications have begun to cooperate with him: "Russian Thought", "Northern Herald". The stories "Name Day", stories "Steppe", "Boring Story", "Chestnut" by Chekhov are published. In 1887 two collections of novels and short stories ("Innocent Speeches" and "At Twilight") are published, in 1888 - "Stories", in 1890 - "Gloomy People". Admission comes to him. In 1888, the writer was awarded a small Pushkin Prize (half).

It is characteristic that most of the works of this author, even out-of-genre, the author's talent is ensured the proper popularity of their level. For example, Chekhov's Chestnut is loved by many generations of children. It is repeatedly filmed. It would seem that it may be easier to tell stories about how a dog (a cross between a dachshund and a mongrel) first lost its owner, and then, practically becoming a circus, suddenly found it. Everything in Chekhov's style is simple: there are no magicians or mermaids. However, the story is invariably loved by children.

Travel to Sakhalin

It is noteworthy that the biography and creativity of Chekhov show in him a man not only highly observant, but also very active and inquisitive. In 1890 he went on a trip to Sakhalin. His impressions of his almost three-month journey through Siberia he displays in a series of essays "From Siberia." Then three more months the writer spends 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 travel materials, he begins a four-year work on the book of essays "Sakhalin". Sailing back home, he buys in the Moscow province of the picturesque estate Melikhovo.

Melikhovo - understanding of Sakhalin observations. A New Stage of the Worldview

The biography and creativity of Chekhov, according to the recognition of literary critics, are adorned with a very special period, called in harmony with his estate "Melikhovsky." At that time Anton Pavlovich felt a special flair for the classics, changes in society related to the repression of the feudal bourgeois relations, and also realized the ugliness of the reactionary policy pursued. However, not only on the collection "Sakhalin" works Anton Pavlovich, who finally became wealthy, in his newly acquired picturesque estate.

The popularity of a truly democratic writer is enormous. Buyers literally scatter from the shelves books with the inscription AP Chekhov "Stories and novels." In the first year of the Melikhov period of creativity, the conceptual story "Chamber No. 6" was completed. A powerful unique Chekhov image of the terrible gray leper town, where everything creative has long been strangled, where only the hospital and prison are "sights", hit upon the readers with all the ruthless truth, making you think: "Why, it's us ...". Lawlessness, whose bulwark in the hospital is Dr. Ragin who rejected the principles of humanism, his death (retribution by faith) makes one think about how people really should live.

Chekhov's new works convincingly testified to the clearly progressing unique writer, who rose to a new stage of creativity.

Melikhovo. Awareness of the situation of the peasantry

Anton Pavlovich, thanks to his daily hours of work, turned into a truly astute master. He learned to see the very essence of what was daily in front of the eyes of millions of his countrymen, but was not realized by them.

In essence, Russia was a peasant country. It was in Melikhov that he managed to notice what the Narodniks were silent about. He carefully monitors the life of the factory villages of Kryukovo and Ugryumovo, AP Chekhov. The stories "The Case from Practice", "The Indian Kingdom", according to eyewitness accounts, in details depict real people, including the Myrrh-merchants Hrymins, who in reality were "even worse".

Chekhov opened peasant Russia for the reading public. Behind demagogy, covered with lies about the love of the Narodniks and their understanding of the peasants' aspirations, there was a conspiracy of silence. He cracked Chekhov with his story "Guys". In it, the classic declared publicly that the peasants often "live worse than livestock." They in their mass are horribly "poor, not well-groomed, drunk, dirty". They are underdeveloped spiritual qualities, they are often "afraid and suspect" of each other. And these people suffer from their trampled human rights, from their humiliated human dignity. They need to be educated, their rights should be protected!

Chekhov inspired. Contemporaries recall that the light in his office in Melikhov often burned all night.

A variety of classics palette

How diverse is the palette of this master, illustrates the fact that in a series of serious works Chekhov suddenly writes for children the story "White-throated". Actually, none of the literary critics and did not expect that the "engineer of human souls" suddenly create a story of extra-genre character. And the answer is simple: he loved children. The tragedy did not close it: his children, a great writer, who was ill with tuberculosis, could not have had. However, he cared for the children of the peasants, erecting their schools for their personal funds.

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

In addition to the harsh realistic, Chekhov's works are also created with elements of autobiography (the story "My Life"). In the story "House with the Mezzanine" and "Gooseberries", the classic narrates about the 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. The last mentioned story, along with "The Man in a Case" and "About Love" is a trilogy.

About several "Melikhov" plays

In Melikhov Anton Pavlovich creates a brilliant play "Uncle Vanya". How capacious it is in it expresses human ingratitude and the desperation caused by it! Uncle Vanya faithfully serves the owner of the estate, the professor, receiving from him a miserable salary. The owner decides to sell it, not caring about the destiny of the person "whom he tamed" (the last phraseology is from the "Little Prince" of Exupery).

Reflections on the ways of art lead the playwright to create a new masterpiece - the play "The Seagull". In it Anton Pavlovich on the plot lines of different characters leads the viewer to understand what is real art: deeply unique for his adept way of hard work of the soul, full of disappointments, victims. He finds the heroine of the play Nina Zarechnaya, steadily following her vocation and becoming an actress. It is characteristic that the images of this work are real people, guests of Melikhovo, and the plot lines of the play in many respects resonate with their destinies.

Yalta period of creativity

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

In Yalta, the writer obviously did not like it. In addition, here he was deprived of the usual agricultural food for Melikhovo. The case was getting better when Sister Maria Pavlovna came occasionally. However, this happened infrequently.

The classics in Yalta were written, according to his recollections, much worse than in Melekhovo. In 1901 he wrote the play "Three Sisters", stories "Lady with a Dog", "Bishop". Melikhov's impressions created in 1903 the final product of the "engineer of human souls" - the play "The Cherry Orchard". It is characterized by 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 resort town of Badenweiler.

Conclusion

Since childhood, Chekhov's books have come into our lives. This is the creation of the author-dreamer, who at the end of the XIX century was able to convincingly show his compatriots his works that he 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 a new life, fragrant and beautiful, like a cherry orchard.