Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Anton Chekhov. Born in 1860, Chekhov trained as a doctor and for most of his adult life divided his time between medicine and writing. Best known for plays including The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters, he is also celebrated today as one of the greatest of short story writers. His works are often powerful character studies and chronicle the changing nature of Russian society in the late nineteenth century.
With:
Catriona Kelly Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford
Cynthia Marsh Emeritus Professor of Russian Drama and Literature at the University of Nottingham
Rosamund Bartlett Founding Director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation and former Reader in Russian at the University of Durham.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:38.7 | For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. UK slash radio for. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:45.9 | the program. Hello a little over a century ago the Times Literary Supplement reviewed the |
| 0:51.5 | first English translation of plays by Anton Chekhov. |
| 0:55.2 | The reviewer wrote, |
| 0:56.2 | Checkov died some eight years ago, not much over 40 years of age. |
| 1:00.8 | Loved and admired at last by his countrymen after the artistic theatre at Moscow |
| 1:04.8 | rescued him from oblivion and contempt. Will he attain to love and admiration in |
| 1:09.2 | England? We believe not. History has proved that verdict wrong. Today, Chekhov is one of the most popular |
| 1:16.6 | playwrights in the world, said to be rivaled only by Shakespeare in the number of performances |
| 1:20.6 | his works receive. But he was also one of the 19th century's |
| 1:24.1 | great short story writers. In his brief life he worked as a doctor, overcoming early |
| 1:28.9 | literary setbacks to become one of Russia's best-loved, most |
| 1:31.7 | perceptive and influential writers. |
| 1:34.4 | With me to discuss the life and work of Anton Chekhov, |
| 1:36.6 | are Katrina Kelly, Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford, Cynthia Marsh, |
... |
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