“Photograph 2: Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya. Stuart Devenie plays Uncle Vanya (centre). Lee Grant plays Marya Vassileyevna, Vanya’s mother (left). Ian Watkin plays the retired professor, Alexander Serebryakov (right). [Auckand Theatre Company. Photo: John McDermot]” (via http://education.waikato.ac.nz )
“What is important is this: the man has been lecturing and writing about art for exactly twenty-five years, and yet he doesn’t know a thing about art. For twenty-five years he’s been chewing over other men’s ideas about realism, naturalism, and all sorts of other nonsense. For twenty-five years he has been lecturing and writing on things intelligent people have known about for ages and stupid people aren’t interested in, anyway. Which means that for twenty-five years he’s been wasting his time…”
- Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky on Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov, a retired professor and someone who until recently, Ivan had looked up to in Anton Checkhov’s play, Uncle Vanya.
This scene provides people in academia with an “ouch” moment. Ah, but it’s just Vanya living up to his role as a superfluous man, right?
“A Young Couple Spending An Evening In Las Vegas; Photographer:Grey Villet” (picture via Life archives).
“And it seemed to them that in only a few more minutes a solution would be found and a new, beautiful life would begin; but both of them knew very well that the end was still a long, long way away and that the most complicated and difficult part was only just beginning.”
- Anton Checkhov’s short story, The Lady with a Dog.
Those last few lines can make a sympathetic person like me develop knots in their stomach.
Medici Venus in Florence (via http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/greeksculp01.html ).
“I am in Florence and have exhausted myself running through museums and churches. I saw the Medici Venus and find that if she were dressed in modern clothing she would look ugly, especially around the waist. I am well. The sky is overcast, and Italy without sunshine is like a person in a mask. Keep well.
Your, Antonio
The monument to Dante is beautiful.”
Anton Chekhov to Maria Chekhova, 1891.
“Now shall I speak of your defects? This is not so easy, though. Referring to shortcomings in the way of talent is like talking of the defects of a fine tree in an orchard; in the main it is certainly not a question of the tree itself but of the tastes of those who look at it. Isn’t that so?
I will begin by pointing out that in my opinion you have no restraint. You are like a spectator in a theatre who expresses his rapture so unrestrainedly that he prevents himself and others from hearing… “
“
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Anton Chekhov in a letter to Maxim Gorky in 1898. Gorky had asked Chekhov for his opinions on his work.
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You wrote you would be here one of these days, so I waited… I don’t feel drawn toward Yasnaya Polyana [the Tolstoy estate]. My brain functions feebly and doesn’t want to get any more weighty impressions. I would prefer some sea bathing and nonsensical talk.
“
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Anton Chekhov in a letter to Alexei Suvorin, 1894.
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fuckyeahrussianliterature:
Chekhov statue at Taganrog.
“He could not help feeling that he had had enough bitter experience to have the right to call them as he pleased, but all the same without the lower breed he could not have existed a couple of days. He was bored and ill at ease among men, with whom he was reticent and cold, but when he was among women he felt at ease, he knew what to talk about with them and how to behave; even when he was silent in their company he experienced no feeling of constraint.”
- the narrator regarding Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov in Chekhov’s story, The Lady with the Dog
![“Photograph 2: Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya. Stuart Devenie plays Uncle Vanya (centre). Lee Grant plays Marya Vassileyevna, Vanya’s mother (left). Ian Watkin plays the retired professor, Alexander Serebryakov (right). [Auckand Theatre Company. Photo: John McDermot]” (via http://education.waikato.ac.nz )
“What is important is this: the man has been lecturing and writing about art for exactly twenty-five years, and yet he doesn’t know a thing about art. For twenty-five years he’s been chewing over other men’s ideas about realism, naturalism, and all sorts of other nonsense. For twenty-five years he has been lecturing and writing on things intelligent people have known about for ages and stupid people aren’t interested in, anyway. Which means that for twenty-five years he’s been wasting his time…”
- Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky on Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov, a retired professor and someone who until recently, Ivan had looked up to in Anton Checkhov’s play, Uncle Vanya.
This scene provides people in academia with an “ouch” moment. Ah, but it’s just Vanya living up to his role as a superfluous man, right?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzrsytWCk41qannlmo1_500.gif)
