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Scott Fitzgerald Shelley William Shakespeare: Flannery O’Connor Maya Angelou Tragedies Franz Kafka Miguel de Cervantes William Wordsworth Gabriel García Márquez Milan Kundera Zora Neale Hurston Bloom’s Modern Critical Views ANTON CHEKHOV New Edition Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Anton Chekhov—New Edition Copyright © 2009 by Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2009 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Anton Chekhov / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom.—New ed. p. cm.—(Bloom’s modern critical views) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-576-3 (acid-free paper) 1. Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860–1904— Criticism and interpretation. I. Bloom, Harold. PG3458.Z8A523 2009 891.72’3—dc22 2009018267 Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967–8800 or (800) 322–8755. You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com. Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Printed in the United States of America MP BCL 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. Contents Editor’s Note vii Introduction 1 Harold Bloom The Cherry Orchard: Chekhov’s Last Testament 9 Savely Senderovich Re-examining the “Coldly Objective” Point-of-View in Chekhov’s “The Bet” and “A Trifle from Life” 29 Maggie Christensen Constance Garnett’s Chekhov and the Modernist Short Story 37 Adrian Hunter The Paradox of Melancholy Insight: Reading the Medical Subtext in Chekhov’s “A Boring Story” 55 Jefferson J. A. Gatrall Chekhov’s Stories: Effects or Subtexts? 77 Kerry McSweeny The Masculine Triangle in Uncle Vania 91 Kjeld Bjørnager Two-timing Time in Three Sisters 99 Cynthia Marsh vi Contents Translating and Mistranslating Chekhov 109 Robin Milner-Gulland and Olga Soboleva Against Narrative (“A Boring Story”) 123 Pekka Tammi Greek Tragedy, Chekhov, and Being Remembered 143 Oliver Taplin A Blind Spot: Chekhov’s Deepest Horizons 153 Stuart Young Chronology 169 Contributors 171 Bibliography 175 Acknowledgments 181 Index 183 Editor’s Note M y introduction admires Chekhov’s plays for their skill in humanizing change, and so in rendering us more humane. The Cherry Orchard is interpreted by Savely Senderovich as Chekhov’s tonal farewell to his art and to his auditors and readers. Four essays examine the Chekhovian short story. Maggie Christensen stresses Chekhov’s offering of shared meaning with his public, while Adrian Hunter describes Constance Garnett’s achievement as a translator and its wide influence. Jefferson J. A. Gattrall and Kerry McSweeny center upon the role of subtexts. Uncle Vania, in Kjeld Bjørnager’s view, is a drama of masculine intersec- tions, after which Cynthia Marsh analyzes the subtle temporal pattern of Three Sisters. Mistranslating Chekhov intrigues Robin Milner-Gulland and Olga So- boleva, while “A Boring Story” receives another reading from Pekka Tammi. Oliver Taplin juxtaposes Chekhov with Greek tragedy, after which Stu- art Young concludes this volume by urging a theatrical restoration of Che- khovian skyscapes and vistas. vii HAROLD BLOOM Introduction anton chekhov (1860–1904) I C hekhov’s best critics tend to agree that he is essentially a dramatist, even as a writer of short stories. Since the action of his plays is both immensely subtle and absolutely ineluctable, the stories also are dramatic in Chekhov’s utterly original way. D. S. Mirsky, in his helpful History of Russian Literature, rather severely remarks upon “the complete lack of individuality in his characters and in their way of speaking.” That seems unjust, but a critic who reads no Russian perhaps cannot dispute Mirsky, who also indicts Chekhov’s Russian: It is colorless and lacks individuality. He had no feeling for words. No Russian writer of anything like his significance used a language so devoid of all raciness and verve. This makes Chekhov (except for topical allusions, technical terms and occasional catch-words) so easy to translate; of all Russian writers, he has the least to fear from the treachery of translators. It is difficult to believe that this helps account for the permanent popularity of Chekhov’s plays in the English-speaking theater, or of his stories with readers of English. Chekhov, as Mirsky also says, is uniquely original and powerful at one mode of representation in particular: “No writer excels in conveying the mutual unsurpassable isolation of human beings and the impossibility of understanding each other.” Mirsky wrote this in 1926, presumably in ignorance of Kafka, before the advent of Beckett, but they 1