About Chekhov : the unfinished symphony /

Marullo's translation of Bunin's biography may reveal more about the young Bunin (1870-1953) than about his mentor, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). Marullo (Univ. of Notre Dame) has written extensively on Bunin, and here he re-creates Bunin's unfinished biography of Chekhov, begun in 1952 and published after Bunin's death. Bunin's gossipy style exposes encounters with major and minor players, including Constantin Stanislavski, Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov's wife Olga, his sister Maria, and his presumed lover Lydia Avilova. But Marullo keeps the focus on the two writers, adding heavily footnoted anecdotal and scholarly clarifications, with numerous citations of letters. Noteworthy Chekhov biographies by David Magarshack (Chekhov, 1970) and Donald Rayfield (Anton Chekhov, CH, Oct'98, 36-0852) and more recent perspectives by Janet Malcolm (Reading Chekhov, 2001) and Michael Finke (Seeing Chekhov, CH, Dec'05, 43-2077) attempt to illuminate the art through the artist. But despite insights by all these experts and hundreds of his letters, Chekhov remains a passionate interest and curiosity for many. Bunin's ripe revelations and memories of his friend Chekhov reveal Bunin's own self-discoveries and talent (Bunin received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933). Readers will benefit from the everyday narrative of two celebrated writers in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. Artman Chapman University