His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in , but the play was revived to acclaim in by Konstantin Stanislavski 's Moscow Art Theatre , which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble [ f ] as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text.
Chekhov began writing stories to earn money, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations that influenced the evolution of the modern short story. Anton Chekhov was born into a Russian family on the feast day of St. He was the third of six surviving children; he had two older brothers, Alexander and Nikolai , and three younger siblings, Ivan, Maria , and Mikhail.
His father, Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, the son of a former serf and his wife, [ 18 ] was from the village Olkhovatka Voronezh Governorate and ran a grocery store. He was a director of the parish choir, a devout Orthodox Christian , and a physically abusive father. Pavel Chekhov has been seen by some historians as the model for his son's many portraits of hypocrisy.
In adulthood, Chekhov criticised his brother Alexander 's treatment of his wife and children by reminding him of Pavel's tyranny: "Let me ask you to recall that it was despotism and lying that ruined your mother's youth. Despotism and lying so mutilated our childhood that it's sickening and frightening to think about it. Remember the horror and disgust we felt in those times when Father threw a tantrum at dinner over too much salt in the soup and called Mother a fool.
Chekhov attended the Greek School in Taganrog and the Taganrog Gymnasium since renamed the Chekhov Gymnasium , where he was held back for a year at fifteen for failing an examination in Ancient Greek. In a letter of , he used the word "suffering" to describe his childhood and recalled:. When my brothers and I used to stand in the middle of the church and sing the trio "May my prayer be exalted", or "The Archangel's Voice", everyone looked at us with emotion and envied our parents, but we at that moment felt like little convicts.
