The publication of this book in 1946, four years after the author’s death, was made possible thanks to her daughters’ efforts to preserve her manuscripts. The depth of the book is striking. It draws extensively on information about Anton Chekhov and successfully captures many aspects of the author, who died shortly before she was born.
It describes his childhood in detail. His father was a man full of contrasts, violent; he practised the Orthodox religion, which he imposed on his children in a strict and unkind manner. Chekhov experienced difficult economic conditions within his family. Of the six siblings, the book focuses on the disorderly lives of the older ones: Alexander and Nikolai.
Chekhov studied medicine, although his great passion was literature. He admired Tolstoy but developed a different style. He has gone down in history for his short stories, in which he was a master; he portrays Russian everyday life, and his characters are often minor and melancholic. He worked hard to support himself, his brothers, and his parents, etc.
The author quotes Russian writer Ivan Bunin on Chekhov: “Even those closest to him never truly knew what was going on in the depths of his soul.” He spent his childhood in Taganrog and later in Moscow and other places. He travelled to Sakhalin and witnessed the harsh living conditions in prisons. In Europe, he especially enjoyed Paris.
In the final chapters, the author explores the protagonist’s personal life in greater depth. He was not happy, perhaps because he could not find meaning in his life. The author makes a notable effort to condense into a few lines the essence of several of his stories, many of them sad. The biography, without fully revealing the inner essence of the Russian author—perhaps due to what Bunin said—is nevertheless a well-crafted book. The author penetrates the writer’s personality and, although different from him, tries to understand him. Chekhov died of tuberculosis at the age of 40, in 1904.