PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Anton Chekhov was born in 1860 in Southern Russia and moved to Moscow to study medicine. Whilst at university he sold short stories and sketches to magazines to raise money to support his family. His success and acclaim grew as both a writer of fiction and of plays whilst he continued to practice medicine. Ill health forced him to move from his country estate near Moscow to Yalta where he wrote some of his most famous work, and it was there that he married actress Olga Knipper. He died from tuberculosis in 1904. Constance Garnett (1861-1946) was one of the first translators to bring English language translations of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov to a wide readership.
Unsurpassed greatness as a teller of stories -- James Lasdun * Guardian * [Chekhov] is the author of some 600 stories, some of novella length. These comprise titles which are among the supreme achievements in prose narrative and have been reproduced in a host of languages. To use that tired banality, they are ”world classics” -- George Steiner * Observer * These stories are a masterclass in life, in human beings and in fiction -- James Marriott * The Times *
