Anton Chekhov & Katherine Mansfield

Updated 2 March 2018

 

Anton Chekhov (Russia 1860-1904) and Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand 1888-1923), two of my favourite authors.  Tuberculosis killed them both. Chekhov had a tremendous influence on Mansfield, both on her life and in her writing.  Mansfield translated most of Chekhov’s letters and works into English.

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If you are interested in the Russian phase of Mansfield’s life, Katerina; The Russian World of Katherine Mansfield, by Joanna Woods, is a must read.  Woods sets out this period of Mansfield’s life so meticulously that it serves as ready reference material for any questions which might come up regarding this phase of her life, and the other writers who featured in it.

‘”I would like to speak Russian with you” were among the last words written By Katherine Mansfield. She never travelled to Russia. However, her lifelong passion for everything Russian runs through her letters and notebooks in an unwritten thread.

Katya, Katoushka, Kissienka and Katerina were just some of the names that Katherine used at the height of her Russian pose, when she wore Russian dress, smoked Russian cigarettes, attended Russian concerts and embarked on a literary love affair with Chekhov that changed her writing – and her life.’

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If Only We Could Know  by Vladimir Kataev – published 2002.

It is fascinating read and reveals what a great judge of character Anton Chekhov was.

I can understand why Katherine Mansfield was so passionate about his work. It is a double tragedy that they both died so young.  

Andrew R Durkin writes: Kataev’s work has been of fundamental importance in understanding Chekhov’s fiction and drama. Harvey Pitcher’s selection and careful translation of the core of Kataev’s studies make some of the best Russian Chekhov criticism available at last in English and should mark the beginning of a new level of understanding of Chekhov in the English-speaking world.

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The photo of Katherine Mansfield above is taken from the cover of  An Appraisal by Nariman Hormasji which gives another important aspect to Mansfield’s  writing including the influence of Chekhov and other Russian writers and authors.

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The Illustrated edition of THE GARDEN PARTY– Katherine Mansfield Short Stories first published in 1987, is a beautiful, colourful bound book I treasure.

 

 

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