Reception of ''A Dreary Story'' by A.P. Chekhov in English-speaking literary criticism

"A Dreary Story" is the major Chekhov's writing. Along withthe story "The Steppe", "A Dreary story" marked the beginning of the mature period of writer's works. Therefore, this story is naturally inthe focus of attention of both foreign and native Chekhov studies. However, the story detailed reception is not studied in these fundamentalworks, so based on the main components of these substantial books we analyse "A Dreary Story" as a separate study. The book "AntonChekhov: A Critical Study" written by W. Gerhardie was published in 1923 and it became the most significant English-speaking research ofChekhov's works of that period. In this paper "A Dreary Story" was considered in the connection with innovative specificity of Chekhov'spsychological analysis. The monograph "Chekhov and His Prose" by T. Winner was the next research of Chekhov's works of the 1960s.Here "A Dreary Story" was studied from psychological and philosophical viewpoint. The scholar considered the problem of character'sspiritual search and his inability to find the "general idea". According to the author the crisis of young Chekhov is the basis of this issue. Theautobiographical approach to the story determined the specificity of the next stage of its interpretation. English-speaking literary critics ofthe 1970s focused their attention on Chekhov's private life. R. Hingley as a representative of this period described and studied the basis ofwriter's life. In his book "A New Life of Chekhov" he investigated "A Dreary Story" according to the facts of the author's biography. The1980s symbolized the return of English-speaking Chekhov studies to the aesthetic subject matter. H.P. Stowell in his monograph "LiteraryImpressionism, James and Chekhov" showed the idea of impressionism as the basic artistic method of the Russian writer. "A Dreary Story"was paid much attention to in the book; the scholar classified it as Chekhov's "middle stage" of "musical impressionism". The 1990s becamea new stage of Chekhov's works reception in the English-speaking world. It can be characterized as an attempt to present a comprehensiveapproach in Chekhov studies. In the monograph "Understanding Chekhov: A Critical Study of Chekhov's Prose and Drama" D. Rayfieldconsidered "A Dreary Story" basing on the reliable sources of Chekhov's life, which helped to reconstitute the details of Chekhov's works.Therefore, he raised significant philosophical and aesthetic issues. In the beginning of the 21st century literary critics continued to researchreligious-philosophical orientation of Chekhov's works. The book "Biblical Subtexts and Religious Themes in Works of Anton Chekhov"by M.S. Swift illustrated the above mentioned ideas. Following the thoughts of D. Rayfield, Swift considered "A Dreary Story" in thecontext of main religious and philosophical notions discovering their common features with the Book of Ecclesiastes. Thus, we can say that"A Dreary Story" by A.P. Chekhov has been in the focus of attention of English-speaking literary criticism for a long period, whichdetermined several stages of its reception. Initially, Chekhov's story was interpreted only in the psychological aspect; in the 1960s thepsychological approach to the story was complicated by the philosophical subject matter; the 1970s showed predominance of theautobiographical approach to the story; the 1980s can be characterized as returning to the aesthetic issue; in the 1990s a complex analysis of"A Dreary Story" was made; in the 21st century scholars continue to research the religious-philosophical orientation of this story.

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