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My Life The Art of the Novella series Anton Chekhov Constance Garnett Books

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My Life The Art of the Novella series Anton Chekhov Constance Garnett Books

It has been suggested that the idea behind Anton Chekhov’s My Life was to write at the expense of Tolstoy.
Tolstoy had espoused a belief in physical labor and the pheasant life. He retained his title and his status as the feudal lord over Yasnaya Polyana but lived something of the pheasant life and promoted a following to adopt less material ways.

The Central character of My Life, Misail Poloznev is born to social position in a small provincial town. Rejecting his status and his duties as a member of the minor nobility, Misael chooses the life of a workman and later a working farmer.
In choosing to be what he thinks is best for himself, Misail never leaves his community or becomes a a hapless dependent. Instead the novel reports how society leaves him and how others can abuse him. If this is a criticism of Tolstoy’s beliefs; it is more complicated than merely a dig.

Instead this is a study in how a society reacts when a Misail rejects social expectations. It is his independence from social norms that creates this actions of the novel, but the message is more about how we react to the independent.

Chekov refuses to give us the noble pheasants. In vino there may be veritas, but there is also drunkenness. The uneducated can be smart and they can be dirty and dishonest. Among the questions Checkov asks us to consider is the question of human value. Does it reside in social status, education, manors, art, or in something ineffable and indi


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My Life The Art of the Novella series Anton Chekhov Constance Garnett Books Reviews

The previous reviewer provides a service with the helpful synopsis. My only quibble is that Chekhov's art is truly universal this story is not simply about the ugly Russian attitudes and institutions of the 19th century. It takes place in a feudal society, but it is very relevant to current-day capitalism. It is the work of a revolutionary, striking at the very foundations of modern society the empty and self-serving justifications of property and social station, and the blame we direct at those who live in poverty and degradation for their condition. Chekhov seems to want to dissolve the ideological glue, which we have so deeply embraced, that holds us in our social and economic places.
Anton Chekhov, justly celebrated for his plays and short stories, also wrote this poignant prose narrative, subtitled The Story of a Provincial. A non-conformist young aristocrat who wants to live through manual labor, inadvertently shocks, puzzles, angers, amuses, or fascinates his fellow townspeople. His authoritarian father is furious, his shy sister is (initially) dismayed, a young woman who likes him grows aloof, another young woman becomes infatuated. Written in 1896, this short novel is a marvelous depiction of the narrowmindedness, cruelty, emptyheadedness, and misery - physical or emotional - that stunted the lives of much of Russia's population of the time. Professionals, merchants, artisans, and peasants (some of them quite sympathetic) are delineated succinctly and vividly, and as the deceptively simple story unfolds, it generates a powerful atmosphere of haunting, compassionate sadness. The answer to a question the narrative implicitly raises - Must life be like this, or can it be better? - is wisely left up to the reader.
I loved this work. Anton Chekhov is a master writer. It details a young idealist who is born into the petite aristocracy but decides to become a 'workman'. It showcases the hypocrisy of both classes though.

Also recommended

Honoré de Balzac

Le Père Goriot

Eugénie Grandet

Chekhov's Doctors A Collection of Chekhov's Medical Tales

A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams
It doesn't get any better than this, imho.
It has been suggested that the idea behind Anton Chekhov’s My Life was to write at the expense of Tolstoy.
Tolstoy had espoused a belief in physical labor and the pheasant life. He retained his title and his status as the feudal lord over Yasnaya Polyana but lived something of the pheasant life and promoted a following to adopt less material ways.

The Central character of My Life, Misail Poloznev is born to social position in a small provincial town. Rejecting his status and his duties as a member of the minor nobility, Misael chooses the life of a workman and later a working farmer.
In choosing to be what he thinks is best for himself, Misail never leaves his community or becomes a a hapless dependent. Instead the novel reports how society leaves him and how others can abuse him. If this is a criticism of Tolstoy’s beliefs; it is more complicated than merely a dig.

Instead this is a study in how a society reacts when a Misail rejects social expectations. It is his independence from social norms that creates this actions of the novel, but the message is more about how we react to the independent.

Chekov refuses to give us the noble pheasants. In vino there may be veritas, but there is also drunkenness. The uneducated can be smart and they can be dirty and dishonest. Among the questions Checkov asks us to consider is the question of human value. Does it reside in social status, education, manors, art, or in something ineffable and indi