A Life in Letters (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Anton Chekhov (Author), Rosamund Bartlett (Editor), Anthony Phillips (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2004 | Series: Penguin Classics

From his teenage years in provincial Russia to his premature death in 1904, Anton Chekhov wrote thousands of letters to a wide range of correspondents. This fascinating new selection tells Chekhov's story as a man and a writer through affectionate bulletins to his family, insightful discussions of literature with publishers and theater directors, and tender love letters to his actress wife. Vividly evoking landscapes, people, and his daily life, the letters offer revealing glimpses into Chekhov's preoccupations-the onset of tuberculosis, his dual careers as doctor and writer, and his ambivalence about his growing reputation as Russia's foremost playwright and author. This volume takes us inside the mind of one of the world's greatest writers, and the character that emerges from these pages is resilient, generous, charming, and life enhancing.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rosamund Bartlett lectures on Russian and music at the University of Durham.

Anthony Phillips translated the letters of Dmitry Shostakovich published as Story of a Friendship.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (September 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449221
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449228
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > Russian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real charmeur!, April 18, 2005

By 

Boris Bangemann "boyse" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Life in Letters (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Janet Malcolm's "Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey" (2001) - a brilliant little book undeservedly maligned by some reviewers - sent me straight back to the book store for a biography of Anton Chekhov. I can report from this trip that the largest bookstore in South East Asia does not carry one single biography of Chekhov!

Instead, I found "Anton Chekhov: A Life in Letters" (2004). And I did not regret it one bit. The book is the fullest collection of Chekhov's letters in English translation to date and contains 370 selected letters reproduced in full. It comes with a chronology of Chekhov's life, a very readable, splendid short introduction, suggestions for further reading, a helpful list of correspondents and four very useful maps. An index at the end of the volume assists in, among other things, finding references to stories and plays in Chekhov's letters.

According to the editors, this book is also the first uncensored edition of Chekhov's correspondence in any language. Chekhov, a physician by training, called the facts of life by their name and took life's mishaps with a sense of humor. Later editors, more prudish and therefore considerably more boring, simply cut out what they called "rude language." Only after Glasnost, in the 1990s, the official portrait of Chekhov as a "decorous and refined gentleman with a stick, who never permitted himself to use racy language and who was rather pious and sickly, with little interest in women" (xv) was beginning to be revised.

The editors point out that Chekhov "may have hidden himself in his literary works, leaving it up to his readers to puzzle out his point of view, and he may have had an aversion to talking about himself in public, but in his letters he could be surprisingly outspoken at times," (xxxv) and so it happens that his correspondence reads almost like the autobiography he always declined to write.

Chekhov's letters illustrate why he is perhaps Russia's best-loved writer: "The qualities which first endeared him to Russian readers back in the 1880s are the same ones which explain his appeal today. He wrote no vast novels in which he attempted to solve the problems of existence [that would be Dostoevsky] or fathom the forces of world history [Tolstoy in "War and Peace"]. He had no particular axe to grind about how people should live their lives, but, like the good doctor that he was, he had a superb ability to diagnose what it was that prevented people from finding happiness and fulfillment and a unique talent for pinpointing it in a clear-sighted way that was a the same time immensely gentle and compassionate. He also had an infectious sense of humour and an unerring sense of life's ironies, which prevented his writing from ever becoming too portentous or sentimental." (xxxvii)

The photo used for the cover shows a pensive Chekhov with a slightly mischievous smile playing around the corner of his mouth. Almost as if just then one of his famous quips had crossed his mind: "Medicine is my lawful wedded wife, and literature is my mistress. When I've had enough of the one, I can go and spend the night with the other."

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have, June 30, 2008

By 

Blake Harding (Tempe, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Life in Letters (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

While the current review is lovely, it's quite wordy for my attention span--I am sure some share my sentiments. Simply put: buy this publication if you like Anton Chekhov. The editor's autobiography and narrative is comprehensive, readable and not at all boring--the included maps are a nice touch and the composition as a whole is a stunning one. You will likely find it easy to relate to his writings or at least enjoy his prose, candor and humor. You will find many moments or evenings of enjoyment from taking a trip down Chekhov lane.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice collection of Chekhov's letters, June 15, 2009

By 

Chelsey (Valdosta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Life in Letters (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This is exactly what I was looking for, a collection of Chekhov's letters that I can read and learn from (I am a Creative Writing major).