Anton Chekhov is today one of the most widely known authors of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Appreciated not only in Russia and the West but also in Asia, he was a master of the short story, and his innovations in the poetics of short prose fiction served as models for the finest American and European short-story writers throughout the twentieth century. His slim output of four major dramatic works sufficed to play an influential role in launching a new era in European theater and--in the exaggerated view of some critics--to earn him the title of "Shakespeare of the twentieth century." In this respect, his success went hand-in-hand with that of the Moskovskii Khudozhestvennyi Akademicheskii Theater (MKhAT, Moscow Art Theater), organized by Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (pseudonym of K. S. Alekseev) and Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Chekhov was of a social class far different from that of the major Russian authors before...