Chekhov's "Plain (Meadow)" Synopsis and Impressions - The Awakening of the Writer Chekhov
Chekhov (1860-1904)Wikipedia.
The Plain" (also titled "The Meadow" in some translations) is a medium-length novel published by Chekhov in 1888.
I read "Plain" in "The Complete Works of Chekhov 7" translated by Kiyoshi Kaminishi and Takuya Hara, published by Chuokoron-sha.
Let's take a quick look at the synopsis. Again, we will use the words of Chekhov researcher Seiro Sato.
This piece is subtitled "A Story of a Journey". It is a tale of a journey on the prairie. It is a story of a boy, raised by his mother without a father and accompanied by his uncle, who abandoned his hometown to go to the city to study, and the boy's disparate experiences are interspersed with his own. There is no other particular plot in the novel. （The story is not a novel in any way.)
The boy's pure eyes form a beautiful red thread that connects the disparate impressions of the landscape as if they were beads. It is the most beautiful "prose poem" in Chekhov's entire oeuvre.
Chikuma Shobo, Seiro SatoThe World of Chekhov's Art.P42
This work depicts the great Russian landscape (plains) that a boy encounters on his way to the city to study, leaving his hometown behind.
The background of the creation of this work was summarized in an easy-to-understand manner at the end of "The Complete Works of Chekhov.
In April 1887, Chekhov visited his hometown of Taganrog alone, and used it as a springboard for a tour of the Donets region, visiting the holy city of Sgayatuye Gorui on the Donets River coast, the towns of the plains, and Cossack villages and hamlets. I have amassed a wealth of poetic ideas," he said. This trip, which Chekhov described as "enough for the next five years," was not only the direct result of his travels but also, as the Soviet critic Bogoslovsky pointed out, served to transform his mind before he began to work on his poems in earnest. The Soviet critic Bogoslovsky pointed out that the work was also useful in changing one's mentality before beginning a full-scale job.
In January 188, Grigorowicz, the elder writer who had once advised Chekhov not to "abuse his talent," wrote to him from Nice, where he was staying, and again urged him to "stop writing small short stories, especially for newspapers, as they are too quick. Chekhov was in the middle of writing "Plain" and sent the following reply.
I was not particularly embarrassed after reading your letter to ......, because it came to me in the middle of my work for a thick magazine. I was not particularly embarrassed after reading your letter, because it came to me in the midst of my work for a thick magazine. This is my reply to the essential part of your letter. I have started on a big job: ......"
A month or so later, he wrote to his eldest brother, Alexandre: "I am very happy to be here.
I'm feeling terribly tired, generally at ....... I probably won't go back to newspapers! Goodbye, past! I'll write occasionally for Suvorin, but other than that, I'm probably going to cut myself off."
In fact, with the short story "The Sleepy" in this volume as his last work, the writer A. Chekhonte disappeared, and Chekhov, who had astonished Garshin by saying that "a new first-class writer had emerged in Russia," steadily continued on his own glorious path. In this sense, the works in this volume were written at a time when Chekhov was "preparing for a great leap forward," and "Plain" is the first step in that leap forward.
Chuo-Koron-Sha, translated by Kiyoshi Kannishi and Takuya Hara, The Complete Works of Chekhov 7, p489-490
As this commentary indicates, "Plain" was based on Chekhov's actual travels and observations.
Importantly, this work marked the beginning of Chekhov's emergence on the literary scene as a first-class Russian writer.
Until this time, Chekhov had been publishing his works under the pen name "A Chekhonte. As the pen name "Chekhonte" suggests, Chekhov had a humorist's air that seemed to be somewhat playful.
And the majority of his work was satirical and humorous short stories that he submitted to magazines at a tremendous pace in order to earn money. Amazingly, he wrote more than 100 short stories a year.
And here is the amazing thing about Chekhov: even his short stories were so good that they were praised by many literary scholars.
Grigorowicz, a leading figure of Dostoevsky's generation, encouraged him to sit down and write his work instead of wasting such talent, and this was the driving force behind the creation of this work.
Plain" is a work that is a departure from the works that had been written and produced to earn money up to that point.
Chekhov wrote this work with confidence and deliberation.
That is why he has been using his real name "Anton Chekhov" instead of "A Chekhonte" from this time on.
This work is very important to Chekhov's awakening as a writer.
impressions
As mentioned in the synopsis, this work is about a boy named Egorushka on his journey from his hometown to the city. There are no major events or dramatic plot twists in this work.
However, we, the readers, are drawn into the scenery of the great Russian plains (steppes) through the fresh eyes of a boy who sees the landscape for the first time.
We have already mentioned that this journey was written based on Chekhov's own experiences. It is because of this experience that he was able to write this work with such poetic sentiment (lyricism).
Tolstoy himself praised this work as "Pushkin in prose. This work is so simple and beautifully poetic that Tolstoy himself praised it as "Pushkin in prose.
When you read it, you feel as if you are looking at a painting of the Great Plains of Russia. The description of the landscape is that outstanding.
This production marks Chekhov's second debut as a writer, and it is a very interesting one.
This is "Chekhov's "Plain" ("The Plain") Synopsis Commentary - The Awakening of the Writer Chekhov".
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