LIBRARY NOTES
William J. Dean
Discovery in the Stacks
Thursday, September 1, 1994
A few years ago, I came upon Chekhov in Stack 5 of the Library. While no stranger to his plays, I knew nothing of his short stories. There, sitting on the shelf waiting for me, were The Tales of Chekhov in thirteen volumes, translated by Constance Garnett. What a treasure-trove!
Chekhov had a deep sympathy for the human condition and an understanding of how difficult life often was. Ernest J. Simmons, in Chekhov: A Biography -- the best book on Chekhov in my view (Stack 7, call number 92/C5157S), writes of "the breadth and tolerance" of his judgment, "his tenderness for those who suffered...his charity in the face of forgivable weakness."
These qualities are evident in all his short stories. For example, a prisoner says in "Dreams," "In penal servitude you are like a crab in a basket: crowding, crushing, jostling, there's no room to breathe..."
Yet what beautiful writing one encounters as well. This passage is from "A Doctor's Visit." "And he was charmed with the evening, the farmhouses and villas on the road, and the quiet atmosphere all around, when the fields and woods and the sun seemed preparing, like the workers now on the eve of the holiday, to rest, and perhaps to pray..."
Chekhov has become my favorite writer. I have a framed picture of him on my office wall. And all because I came upon him one day while exploring Stack 5. Library members, what adventures await you in the stacks!
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