Peasants and Other Stories New York Review Books Classics Антон Павлович Чехов was born in the small seaport of Taganrog southern Russia the son of a grocer Chekhov's grandfather was a serf who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841 He also taught himself to read and write Yevgenia Morozova Chekhov's mother was the daughter of a cloth merchantWhen I think back on my childhood Chekhov recalled it all seems uite gloomy to me His early years were shadowed by his father's tyranny religious fanaticism and long nights in the store which was open from five in the morning till midnight He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog 1867 68 and Taganrog grammar school 1868 79 The family was forced to move to Moscow following his father's bankruptcy At the age of 16 Chekhov became independent and remained for some time alone in his native town supporting himself through private tutoringIn 1879 Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School While in the school he began to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support himself and his mother sisters and brothers His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin owner of the St Petersburg journal Oskolki splinters His subjects were silly social situations marital problems farcical encounters between husbands wives mistresses and lovers whims of young women of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge – the author was shy with women even after his marriage His works appeared in St Petersburg daily papers Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885 and Novoe vremia from 1886Chekhov's first novel Nenunzhaya pobeda 1882 set in Hungary parodied the novels of the popular Hungarian writer Mór Jókai As a politician Jókai was also mocked for his ideological optimism By 1886 Chekhov had gained a wide fame as a writer His second full length novel The Shooting Party was translated into English in 1926 Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 1926Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine until 1892 In 1886 Chekhov met HS Suvorin who invited him to become a regular contributor for the St Petersburg daily Novoe vremya His friendship with Suvorin ended in 1898 because of his objections to the anti Dreyfus campaingn conducted by paper But during these years Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate non judgemental author He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr 1 Absence of lengthy verbiage of political social economic nature; 2 total objectivity; 3 truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4 extreme brevity; 5 audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6 compassionChekhov's first book of stories 1886 was a success and gradually he became a full time writer The author's refusal to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intellitentsia and he was criticized for dealing with serious social and moral uestions but avoiding giving answers However he was defended by such leading writers as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov I'm not a liberal or a conservative or a gradualist or a monk or an indifferentist I should like to be a free artist and that's all Chekhov said in 1888The failure of his play The Wood Demon 1889 and problems with his novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period In 1890 he travelled across Siberia to remote prison island Sakhalin There he conducted a detailed census of some 10000 convicts and settlers condemned to live their lives on that harsh island Chekhov hoped to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation It is probable that hard conditions on the island also weakened his own physical condition From this journey was born his famous travel book T