Remembering a story about a seminarian who was beaten to death nearby, he wonders if this is his ghost. He thinks he sees a man across the water, standing motionless. But walking the overgrown pathways of his less familiar stories can help give a fresh sense of why his storytelling has been so influential, and remains compelling in its own right.Ĭonsider the last page of “Neighbours”, from 1892, in which Pyotr Mikhailych, a young man who “already had all the makings of an old bachelor landowner”, sits miserably beside a pond as the moon rises. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s new translation of 52 Chekhov stories doesn’t include many of his most famous works (their versions of those can be found in a collection from 2000, only available in the UK as an e-book). What has been unclear before? Why is it just now becoming clear? What’s happened? Most of all – what now?” The quote might not belong to Anton Chekhov at all (no one has ever found the story it’s from), but Carver’s description of its effect, its ability to stage a revelation and in the same moment open a field of greater mystery, absolutely does. I love their simple clarity, and the hint of revelation that’s implied. For Carver, these words are “filled with wonder and possibility. One had “this fragment of a story by Chekhov: ‘… and suddenly everything became clear to him’”. In a 1981 essay, Raymond Carver described some of the quotations taped to the wall around his desk.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |