Chekov, A. 1895, Three Years. (Alpin, H. (tr), 2004, Hesperus, London).

Chekov reputedly had an enormous influence on Russian literature, twentieth century playwrights and short story form. This work is almost novel length, but with a small enough cast of characters for me to follow!

Setting:
Provincial Russian town and Moscow, 1890s.

Main characters:
Alexei Laptev – painfully loves Yulia, hates his brutal father and ruins everything
Yulia Sergeyevna – marries Alexei without love
Nina (Alexei’s sister) – dies
Fyodor (Alexei’s industrialist brother) – contrasts with Alexei
Polina (Alexei’s former lover) – stops passionately loving Alexei

Impressions:
Mood is all important, and various flavours of despair waft through this short novel. There is a story full of dramatic events, but they are delivered so concisely that they seem almost unimportant. The text is dominated by thought, leading to, during, reflecting on or triggered by the characters’ actions. A host of ‘messages’ could be read into this book, depending on the context against which it is read. This is exactly the core problem faced by the central character, Laptev: how to interpret the most subtle and possibly accidental of indications,

There is a particular style about this, that takes a while to love. And that too is paralleled in the book, as the characters gradually change in the most likely ways, but with no sense of inevitability.

At the start of the book, we gradually discover that Laptev is not dashing, heroic, creative or otherwise especially worthy of attention. In passing we note that he is rich, but it seems unimportant: except that the entire plot comes to hang on that point.

Constrained by propriety, principles or aesthetics, characters over-analyse the vaguest, most inconsequential observations, and wallow in uncertainty or indecision. Under intense self-examination, feelings prove ephemeral, unstable, even when devastatingly powerful. Yet characters struggle to be true to their feelings.

The characters have passion, but its flux is often unexpected and yet inevitable. Laptev explodes in anger at his brothers’ family pride, after giving us over a year of wistful or wishful thinking rather than decision over his desparate infatuation with Yulia. Polina suddenly settles for banal security after an endlessly drawn out passionate love/hatred of Alexei.

Aftertaste:
Strangely, I like this book better, three days after finishing it. Perhaps the ennui, despair or frustration of the characters was too intense for my reading pleasure. I am sure I’ll reread it in a year or two and see much more in it.

References:
Text: http://www.online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1277/
Synopsis: http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12114
Image: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html