Anton Chekhov Through the Eyes of Russian Thinkers Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- List of Names
- List of Russian Cultural Concepts
- Three Brief Biographies – Rozanov, Merezhkovskii and Shestov
- Part One Vasilii Rozanov
- 1 Rozanov on Chekhov: ‘Overcoming Literature’ and Extending Horizons
- 2 Kind and Quiet: Vasilii Rozanov's Reading of Chekhov
- 3 Contemporaneity, Competition and Combat. Facts and Fictions about Everybody and Passiveness, Orientalism and Anaesthesia in Rozanov's View on Chekhov
- 4 ‘Tree of Life’ and ‘Dead Waters’: Why was Rozanov Afraid of Chekhov?
- Part Two Dmitrii Merezhkovskii
- Part Three Lev Shestov
- Notes on Contributors
3 - Contemporaneity, Competition and Combat. Facts and Fictions about Everybody and Passiveness, Orientalism and Anaesthesia in Rozanov's View on Chekhov
from Part One - Vasilii Rozanov
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- List of Names
- List of Russian Cultural Concepts
- Three Brief Biographies – Rozanov, Merezhkovskii and Shestov
- Part One Vasilii Rozanov
- 1 Rozanov on Chekhov: ‘Overcoming Literature’ and Extending Horizons
- 2 Kind and Quiet: Vasilii Rozanov's Reading of Chekhov
- 3 Contemporaneity, Competition and Combat. Facts and Fictions about Everybody and Passiveness, Orientalism and Anaesthesia in Rozanov's View on Chekhov
- 4 ‘Tree of Life’ and ‘Dead Waters’: Why was Rozanov Afraid of Chekhov?
- Part Two Dmitrii Merezhkovskii
- Part Three Lev Shestov
- Notes on Contributors
Summary
In essence, the question of Chekhov's reception by his contemporaries has not only not been resolved, it has not even been put correctly.
Avletina Kuzicheva, 19971Contemporaneity and Competition. General Aspects of Chekhov's Reception by Rozanov
I think if Anton Pavlovich Chekhov had said, ‘The time has come, I need an apartment, a table, some rest and a wife’, Suvorin would have replied: ‘Have all this at your disposal in my home’.
Vasilii Rozanov, 1912Anton Chekhov had been dead for almost 12 years, when Vasilii Rozanov, reading the last volume of the writer's correspondence, wrote in the margin of a letter from Chekhov one of his famous thumbnail sketches. This miniature in prose lays bare his sorrow about the missed opportunity for a relationship with a great contemporary artist:
9. III. 1916
I lived all my life with people who were deeply irrelevant to me. And from those I was really interested in, I kept my distance.
(on the copy of Chekhov's letter)[…] What would have been the result of a friendship with Chekhov? He clearly called me (in the letter), beckoned me.
I did not answer his very kind letter. This was even repellent. Why did I not reply?
Fate.
I felt that he was significant. And I did not like to come close to significant people.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Anton Chekhov Through the Eyes of Russian ThinkersVasilii Rozanov, Dmitrii Merezhkovskii and Lev Shestov, pp. 37 - 62Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010