Analyzes the use of metapoesis in the works of prominent Russian authors from the nineteenth century.

“Wise, lucid, compassionate, and refreshingly to the point, this is a book after Chekhov’s own heart. Carol Apollonio, one of the few people to have made a serious attempt to retrace Chekhov’s steps on his epic journey from Moscow to eastern Siberia, proves to be an excellent guide both to his remarkable life and to the many facets of his literary world. It is as enjoyable to spend time with her as it is with the master himself.” —Rosamund Bartlett, author of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life, and translator of About Love and Other Stories. Born in the port city of Taganrog in southern Russia, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) survived a difficult childhood with an abusive father and put himself through school (while supporting his family), qualifying as a physician in 1884. At the same time he began practicing medicine, he also became celebrated for his short fiction, which redefined the genre with its formal innovations and psychological depth. His first serious play, The Seagull, was booed at its premiere in 1896, but—along with his other plays Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard—it came to be seen as a masterpiece, bringing a new realism to the theater and to acting, which continues to reverberate today. Afflicted with ill health for much of his life, Chekhov died of tuberculosis at the age of 44, prematurely depriving the world of a great writer and a great humanist. In Simply Chekhov, Professor Carol Apollonio provides a concise and accessible introduction to Chekhov, both within his time and place (Russia on the eve of revolution) and as a master of world literature. Readers will meet the major figures of Chekhov’s era—as well as his colorful family, lovers, colleagues, and friends—and gain an appreciation for the ways in which this real-life cast of characters are reflected in Chekhov’s stories and plays. Drawing on insights from her more than three decades of Chekhov scholarship, Apollonio not only presents strikingly original insights into Chekhov’s major works, but explores the concerns—from the place of humans in the natural world to the threat of homelessness—that made him such a compelling figure and that remain relevant to the crises we face today.

Why is the name of this composite book “Mystifying Russian soul”? Let’s apply to Wikipedia: “The concept arouse in the second part of the 19th century due to a philosophy of the leading Russian writers such as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. In their popular in Europe books not ethic, but aesthetic principles as well as not entertaining, but moral needs are playing the dominant role. “Spirit” of such writings turned into “Soul” and lead to a concept “Mystifying Russian soul” popular abroad. Except Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy almost all the writers who became classics of Russian and world literature took part in this process. The composite book “Mystifying Russian soul” contains more than twenty their novels, tales, plays and poems. Contents: Nikolai Gogol Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol Taras Bulba Fyodor Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky The Idiot Leo Tolstoy War and Peace Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina Alexander Pushkin Eugene Onegin Alexander Pushkin The Daughter Of The Commandant Alexander Pushkin The Bakchesarian Fountain Ivan Turgenev Fathers and Children Ivan Goncharov Oblomov Anton Chekhov The Witch and Other Stories Anton Chekhov The Cherry Orchard Anton Chekhov The Three Sisters Mikhail Lermontov A Hero of Our Time Aleksandr Ostrovsky The Storm Mikhail Saltykov A Family of Noblemen Aleksandr Kuprin The Duel Maxim Gorky Mother

A Bibliography of Anton Chekhov in English: Studies, Translations, Reviews and Notes is offered in three appropriate parts. Part One, Studies, comprises sections for book-length bio-literary studies and bio-literary articles; introductions; comparative studies; Russian and foreign memoirs; popular studies; general and individual studies of Chekhov's plays and short stories; studies of his non-fiction, letters, notes, and diaries; and special categories: film, language and stylistics, documents and documentation, translation studies, dissertations, bibliography, and collections. Part Two, Translations, is divided into general collections, drama collections, individual dramas, story collections, individual stories; non-fiction, letters, notes, and diaries; and film. Part Three, Critical Reviews, provides a comprehensive selection of the most significant reviews in major English-language newspapers and journals through the year 1993. It is not possible to provide a comprehensive selection of an estimated 350,000 reviews of Chekhov plays, 1994-2003, but an attempt has been made to provide a representative sampling of reviews in major newspapers and current periodicals. Citations throughout this Bibliography are full and unabbreviated, the intent being to provide access to each work in every appropriate category without complicating the search process with confusing cross-listings. Entries for collections are accompanied by listings of contents in the order given in tables of contents or alphabetically. Entries for collections provide a base for subsequent listings of individual major works for addition of subsequent editions, reprints, and re-publications. Translations of plays are categorized by their most commonly known English titles and cited within categories by the English title given for a particular translation. English titles of stories have not been rationalized in this way because the large number of Chekhov's stories would require division of the section on individual stories into virtually hundreds of sub-sections. Instead, stories are listed in alphabetical order by the various English titles given for a particular translation.