Chekhov

Chekhov often said that ‘I am a doctor by trade and sometimes I do literary work in my free time.’ This claim may be surprising, given his status as a giant of 20th century drama, but Chekhov practiced medicine for most of his life and engaged in humanitarian work which took him away from writing for months. He placed one such trip though, across the unforgiving terrain of Siberia to write about the penal island of Sakhalin, above all others. Chekhov’s Sakhalin Journey, written by a neuroscientist and practicing clinician, uses this trip and Chekhov’s own account of it to uncover new sides to him, as both a medical professional and humanitarian.

Chekhov’s life was dominated by humanitarian action, and his medical outlook informed his philosophical and literary development. In a revealing short story he wrote that, ‘with my last breath, I shall continue to believe that science is the most important, the most beautiful and the most vital thing in human life; that it always has been and always will be the highest manifestation of love’. By foregrounding this hitherto overlooked aspect of his life, Chekhov’s Medicine suggests that to understand the man we need his medicine as well as his literature, and to assess his life from his perspective as well as ours.

“Chekhov’s most important achievement in his own eyes was not a body of plays or stories: it was his self-sacrificing journey across Siberia to the penal island of Sakhalin, the painstaking enquiry he undertook into conditions there, and the extensive exposé he wrote on his return.  It is time that admirers of the writer saw how important and original were the achievements of Chekhov the doctor. Exploring this journey to a modern hell will lead to a revolution in the way we regard Chekhov the writer and the man.”

Professor Donald Rayfield.