Afterlives of Chekhov’s Short Stories: A Web of Miracles

Abstract

The article focuses on certain ways in which Chekhov’s short stories have influenced the works of later creative individuals. There is a brief mention of features of Pablo Neruda’s poetry, in his The Book of Questions, that are reminiscent of features od Chekhov’s short stories. The article also mentions Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Thirteenth String Quartet,” which, to the composer, reminded him of Chekhov’s story, “The Black Monk.” Bob Dylan based an album of his on Chekhov’s short stories. The bulk of the article concentrates on the affinities with Chekhov of a selection of short stories by the North American writers Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, and Eudora Welty. Joyc Carol Oates’ “The Lady with the Pet Dog” shifts the perspective from Gurov’s viewpoint, in “The Lady with the Little Dog,” to that of Anna. Alice Munro, in “Walker Brothers Cowboy,” displays features that are similar to those in Chekhov’s “Beauties.” Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” has connections to Chekhov’s “About Love,” Eudora Welty, in “A Worn Path,” like Chekhov, endows her characters with dignity, despite their flaws. Like Chekhov, Welty does not judge her characters. The article suggests that Welty’s “The Winds” is indebted to Chekhov’s “The House with the Mezzanine.” John Cheever’s stories, like Chekhov’s, show irresolution. An admirer of Chekhov’s drama and of his prose, Cheever, in his story, “The Day the Pig Fell into the Well,” reflects themes of “The Cherry Orchard” as well as of Chekhov’s stories.