Gooseberries

Born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia, Chekhov came from a modest background. He initially pursued a medical career and became a physician, but he devoted himself to writing throughout his life. Chekhov’s literary career began with humorous sketches and stories published in various magazines. However, his breakthrough came in the late 1880s when he started writing more serious, realistic stories and plays that explored the complexities of human nature and captured the lives of ordinary people in provincial Russian society.

He created many masterpieces, including the play “The Cherry Orchard” (1904), the novelette “Ward No. 6” (1892), and the short stories “The Lady with the Dog” (1903). In 1904, he died at age 44 of tuberculosis.

Chekhov’s writing style is characterized by its subtlety, understatement, and close observation of human behavior. Instead of expressing his own sociopolitical ideas through his stories, Chekhov foregrounds his characters’ everyday struggles, disappointments, and moral dilemmas. His stories often close with irony and ambiguity, leaving the readers to ponder the deeper meanings.

The Little Trilogy (1898) is a series of stories told by three friends: Bourkin, Aliokhin, and