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"Though long recognized as one of the founding fathers of the short story, it is perhaps the combined longevity and scope of Anton Chekhov's influence that is most astounding. The list of authors, many of them contemporary, who routinely cite Chekhov as a major influence in their own writing could almost read as a who's who in 20th-century English and American literature. Indeed, the seemingly casual story of an ordinary life, told with articulate delicacy and heightened mood and detail, populates not only Chekhov's canon but also that of the modern short story. His ability to provide for the reader a truly intimate feel for what is most telling - a vista, the weather, a conversation - has become the cornerstone of the form. Prevalent in the works of Katherine Mansfield, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and Nadine Gordimer, among others, this distinctive style of writing is a testament to Chekhov's international influence. As with all the "greats" of literature, though, it is more than just style and structure that lives on: the motif of individual freedom, so prevalent in Chekhov's writing, is especially poignant today." "In Anton Chekhov: A Study of the Short Fiction, Ronald L. Johnson follows the Russian master as he matures from a newspaper and magazine writer to becoming the "father" of the modern short story. In a chronological study of an astoundingly prolific career, Johnson examines a number of Chekhov stories in great detail, echoing the thorough attention to detail for which his subject was well known. In this comprehensive study, Johnson follows the development of what was to become the benchmark form of the short story, while also tracing the vitality and importance of the content of those stories. Johnson's study shows that Chekhov was more than just the father of a style, but was profoundly concerned with human rights and the search for a meaningful life."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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CHOICE Review

Chekhov, who wrote more than 700 stories, poses a huge problem for any literary critic, especially one under a publisher's space restrictions. In Part 1 Johnson tries (in 100 pages) to do it all: provide plot summaries and analyses of many stories while also trying to deal with thematic groupings and general characteristics. Part 2 deals with "Chekhov the Writer" but is simply a small selection of letters taken from other editions of Chekhov's letters in English. Part 3 is titled "The Critics" but consists of two very short excerpts from The Portable Chekhov, ed. by Avrahm Yarmolinsky (1954), and from Simon Karlinsky's selections of Chekhov's correspondence, Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought (1975). Johnson does provide a helpful "Appendix of Russian Titles and Alternate Title Translations," but there is little in this book that is not available in more detail in other works on Chekhov--Karlinsky's, for example, or Peter Bitsilli's Chekhov's Art: A Stylistic Analysis (CH, Nov'83). The book does, however, provide a short overview of Checkhov the short story writer and is recommended for those who want a quick introduction to Chekhov. General audiences; all undergraduates. E. Yarwood; Eastern Washington University