Though the boys had often to take their father’s place in the shop, they had leisure enough to enjoy themselves. The chief characteristic distinguishing the Chekhov family from their neighbours was their habit of singing and having religious services at home. Anton had to learn the whole church service by heart and sing it over with his brothers. On Sunday morning they went to early mass, after which they all sang hymns in chorus at home. Every Saturday the whole family went to the evening service, and on their return sang hymns and burned incense. There was also a French governess who came to teach the children languages. Pavel Yegorovitch trained his children into a regular choir, taught them to sing music at sight, and play on the violin, while at one time they had a music teacher for the piano too. ![]() In the evening, when their father came home from the shop, there was choral singing or a duet. The eldest, Alexandr, would construct an electric battery, Nikolay used to draw, Ivan to bind books, while Anton was always writing stories. Everyone got up early, the boys went to the high school, and when they returned learned their lessons. The father was severe, and in exceptional cases even went so far as to chastise his children, but they all lived on warm and affectionate terms. The family was an ordinary patriarchal household of the kind common at that time. There were six children, five of whom were boys, Anton being the third son. In 1854 he married Yevgenia Yakovlevna Morozov, the daughter of a cloth merchant of fairly good education who had settled down at Taganrog after a life spent in travelling about Russia in the course of his business. He took an active part in all the affairs of the town, devoted himself to church singing, conducted the choir, played on the violin, and painted ikons. But Pavel Yegorovitch was always inclined to neglect his business. This business did well until the construction of the railway to Vladikavkaz, which greatly diminished the importance of Taganrog as a port and a trading centre. ![]() A few years after his freedom had been purchased he settled at Taganrog, a town on the Sea of Azov, where he afterwards opened a “Colonial Stores.” Chekhov’s father, Pavel Yegorovitch, had a passion for music and singing while he was still a serf boy he learned to read music at sight and to play the violin. It illustrates how recent a growth was the educated middle-class in pre-revolutionary Russia, and it shows, what is perhaps more significant, the homogeneity of the Russian people, and their capacity for completely changing their whole way of life.Ĭhekhov’s father started life as a slave, but the son of this slave was even more sensitive to the Arts, more innately civilized and in love with the things of the mind than the son of the slaveowner. There is in this nothing striking to a Russian, but to the English student it is sufficiently significant for several reasons. The grandson of this serf was Anton Chekhov, the author the son of the nobleman was Tchertkov, the Tolstoyan and friend of Tolstoy. In 1841 a serf belonging to a Russian nobleman purchased his freedom and the freedom of his family for 3,500 roubles, being at the rate of 700 roubles a soul, with one daughter, Alexandra, thrown in for nothing. Chekhov’s letters to his wife after his marriage have not as yet been published. The brief memoir is abridged and adapted from the biographical sketch by his brother Mihail. Of the eighteen hundred and ninety letters published by Chekhov’s family I have chosen for translation these letters and passages from letters which best to illustrate Chekhov’s life, character and opinions.
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