“The tales have each its special sharpness, but how little are they a moralizing and how much a sophistication, an enrichment of experience!”
+ Dial 69:432 O ’20 130w
“The Chekhov of these stories is the typical naturalist. He is a naturalist, that is to say, not merely on some artistic theory, but by instinct and need. He is the man whose vision of life has caused him suffering, whose contacts have brought him pain. He has little of the Russian’s compassion; he has the artist’s cruelty toward those who have pierced and jangled his delicate nerves. The novelette My life has a note of relenting. The two stories that have a touch of gentleness and of the sadder poetry of life—Verotchka and Zinotchka—read like memories of moments that were painful enough to be recalled but not bitter enough to be resented in after years.”
+ Nation 111:48 Jl 10 ’20 750w
“Chekhov applies the knife, which is his eye, to everyone alike. And in this critical insight is one of his distinguishing characteristics. To read Chekhov is to come in contact with a man of great sensitiveness and witty subtleties yet a man of wide sanity and plain humane feeling.” F. H.
+ New Repub 22:254 Ap 21 ’20 1450w
“There is no trickery about Chekhov’s story telling; he is given neither to happy endings nor to ironical twists of narration. His tales are simply unadorned cross-sections of life, studied and described with passionless accuracy. Chekhov’s reaction to life is revealed in his treatment of his characters—a reaction neither bitter nor sentimental, but grave and just and charitable.” A. C. Freeman
+ N Y Call p10 My 9 ’20 320w
“His stories are replete with interest, with vivid glimpses of the baffling Russia of yesterday. It is a picture of hopelessness painted by a master without hope.”
+ N Y Times 25:22 Je 27 ’20 660w