ABSTRACT
In spite of A. P. Chekhov’s conscious objectivity as an artist, every page of his work reveals that he was no dispassionate observer, coolly registering impressions. Chekhov’s personal history made it perhaps more difficult for him than most to achieve a unified view of life, for he was a spiritual aristocrat, brought up among shopkeepers and descended from serfs. Chekhov could find no dogma that would save him the trouble of thinking for himself; and he was too fully conscious of the complexity of the religious, philosophical and political problems of his time to arrive at clear-cut ideas that could be expressed in systematic form. Chekhov’s horror of rash generalisations and his sense of humour are amongst his most attractive qualities for an English reader. Chekhov ‘poses problems and does not solve them’, certainly, but his works do seem to have a focus, genuine artistic unity, and indirectly they express a consistent outlook on life.
