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smcleish's review
4.0
In this book, McVay presents English translations of excerpts from selected letters sent by Chekhov, in chronological order, to catalogue his life and thoughts from his late teenage years to his death. Each year has an editorial introduction, setting the context (along with a league table of the main recipients of his letters that year), and the letters are heavily annotated, to help the reader follow them - something which is necessary as the matching letters sent to Chekhov are not included.
Chekhov may be the the best possible candidate for this particular biographical method. He was an extremely prolific letter writer (a year in which he wrote only 243 letters is described by McVay as "not a vintage year"), and the letters are candid and revealing, to the extent that for many years the Russian edition of the complete letters was significantly censored. The thread which follows his deteriorating health - he had tuberculosis for most of his life - is very affecting, especially as he seeks to play down just how ill he is, while his relationship with his mistress then wife, actress Olga Knipper, is revealingly strange (he addresses her by a series of odd animal nicknames).
Some of the footnotes are more intrusive than helpful, but generally this is an excellent way to present an interesting life.
Chekhov may be the the best possible candidate for this particular biographical method. He was an extremely prolific letter writer (a year in which he wrote only 243 letters is described by McVay as "not a vintage year"), and the letters are candid and revealing, to the extent that for many years the Russian edition of the complete letters was significantly censored. The thread which follows his deteriorating health - he had tuberculosis for most of his life - is very affecting, especially as he seeks to play down just how ill he is, while his relationship with his mistress then wife, actress Olga Knipper, is revealingly strange (he addresses her by a series of odd animal nicknames).
Some of the footnotes are more intrusive than helpful, but generally this is an excellent way to present an interesting life.
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