The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.
— Gooseberries and Other Stories
Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright, short story writer and physician, widely considered one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. With Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, he is often named one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre.
A physician by profession, he once said, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress." After a poor reception of The Seagull in 1896, the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. Ivanov, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard are among his most quoted works in our library.
A physician by profession, he once said, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress." After a poor reception of The Seagull in 1896, the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. Ivanov, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard are among his most quoted works in our library.
Most quoted works
- Ivanov 12
- The Three Sisters 8
- Selected Stories 7
- The Cherry Orchard 6
- The Complete Short Novels 3
- About Love and Other Stories 2
Three o'clock in the morning. The soft April night is looking at my windows and caressingly winking at me with its stars. I can't sleep, I am so happy.
— About Love and Other Stories
And only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life.
— The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904
And what does it mean -- dying? Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and only the five we know are lost at death, while the other ninety-five remain alive.
— The Cherry Orchard
A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquantaince, next a mistress, and only then a friend.
— The Three Sisters
Science and art,... they seek the truth and the meaning of life, they seek God, [and] the soul, and when they are harnessed to passing needs and activities,... then they only complicate and encumber life.
— Five Great Short Stories
Country life has its advantages,' he used to say. 'You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your ducklings swim on the pond, and everything smells good. . . and there are gooseberries.
— Gooseberries
They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.
— Selected Stories
The sufferings which may be observed nowadays - they are so widespread and so vast - but people speak nevertheless about a certain moral improvement which society has achieved…
— The Three Sisters
Except for two or three older writers, all modern literature seems to me not literature but some sort of handicraft, which exists only so as to be encouraged, though one is reluctant to use its products.
— Selected Stories
But then there's loneliness. However you might philosophise about it, loneliness is a terrible thing, my dear fellow… Although in reality, of course, it's absolutely of no importance!
— The Three Sisters