Wednesday, 5 August 2009

Pritchett on Chekhov - Nothing to Add

I've just read A Dreary Story - another stunningly good major Chekhov story which, like My Life, I'd somehow managed to miss (I sometimes wonder if I've read Chekhov at all...). I was going to post on A Dreary Story, but then I came across this and realised that there's really nothing to add. Pritchett even catches in a phrase the precise blend of qualities that give the story its uniquely unnerving tone - 'an unrepentant cold intellectual vivacity' indeed. Has any other writer had such a deep and sympathetic understanding of Chekhov and what makes him great?
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2 comments:

  1. jonathan law6 August 2009 at 12:07

    For some reason, perhaps connected to the weird atmospheric conditions here, I misread that
    (twice) as Pratchett on Chekhov, rhetorical question and all ("Has any other writer had such a deep and sympathetic understanding...?"). Shame really -- for a moment there I thought I was about to be gifted a mind-bogglingly new perspective on AC, TP, or both. Ah well.

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  2. Nige6 August 2009 at 13:35

    Ha yes - misreadings - I fear there might be a post in that - always doing it myself...

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