✍ Scribed by Rayfield, Donald
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The description 'definitive' is too easily used, but Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov merits it unhesitatingly. To quote no less an authority than Michael Frayn:
'With question the definitive biography of Chekhov, and likely to remain so for a very long time to come. Donald Rayfield starts with the huge advantage of much new material that was prudishly suppressed under the Soviet regime, or tactfully ignored by scholars. But his mastery of all the evidence, both old and new - a massive archive - is magisterial, his background knowledge of the period is huge; his Russian is sensitive to every colloquial nuance of the day, and his tone is sure. He captures a likeness of the notoriously elusive Chekhov which at last begins to seem recognisably human - and even more extraordinary.'
Chekhov's life was short, he was only forty-four when he died, and dogged with ill-health but his plays and short stories assure him of his place in the literary pantheon.... ϡ쯦랠
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«Три года, проведенные в поисках, расшифровке и осмыслении документов, убедили меня в том, что ничего в этих архивах не может ни дискредитировать, ни опошлить Чехова. Результат как раз обратный: сложность и глубина фигуры писателя становятся еще более очевидными, когда мы оказываемся способны объясн