A Journey to the End of the Russian Empire (Penguin Great Journeys)
by Anton Chekhov
Penguin Great Journeys Collection (15)
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Overwhelmed by what he felt was the worthlessness of his great success as a writer, Chekhov (1860-1904) decided to leave everything behind him and go to the far reaches of Siberia - to the terrible Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Island. This book mixes his witty, charming letters back to friends on his long journey with his grim account of the reality of life in one of the worst places on earth. Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries - show more but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things- Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered. show lessTags
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A curious mixture, the first half is of letters home from Chekhov to family and friends which reveal him to be rather ordinary and unimpressive. The second half is a description of the island of Sakhalin, a kind of penal colony, and the longer it goes on the better it gets. His calm and dignified description of the horrible treatment of prisoners shows his intelligence and humanity.
Very interesting account of author's 1893 journey from his literary life in Moscow, right across Rusia to the remote penal colony of Sakhalin (the bit that almost touches Japan.)
The journey itself is arduous but often fun- sailing Lake Baikal, a night with a prostitute, amazing scenery..his letters home are cheery.
Then the actual island itself- the local Gilyak people; free Russians who have settled here...and the large and wretched criminal population, with its casual floggings, balls and chain ..and regular hangings.
The journey itself is arduous but often fun- sailing Lake Baikal, a night with a prostitute, amazing scenery..his letters home are cheery.
Then the actual island itself- the local Gilyak people; free Russians who have settled here...and the large and wretched criminal population, with its casual floggings, balls and chain ..and regular hangings.
Interesting short insight into the lifestyle and thought processes prevalent at the time.
Overwhelmed by what he felt was the worthlessness of his great success as a writer, Chekhov (1860-1904) decided to leave everything behind him and go to the far reaches of Siberia - to the terrible Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Island. This book mixes his witty, charming letters back to friends on his long journey with his grim account of the reality of life in one of the worst places on earth.
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2,642+ Works 44,751 Members
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the provincial town of Taganrog, Ukraine, in 1860. In the mid-1880s, Chekhov became a physician, and shortly thereafter he began to write short stories. Chekhov started writing plays a few years later, mainly short comic sketches he called vaudvilles. The first collection of his humorous writings, Motley show more Stories, appeared in 1886, and his first play, Ivanov, was produced in Moscow the next year. In 1896, the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg performed his first full- length drama, The Seagull. Some of Chekhov's most successful plays include The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, and Three Sisters. Chekhov brought believable but complex personalizations to his characters, while exploring the conflict between the landed gentry and the oppressed peasant classes. Chekhov voiced a need for serious, even revolutionary, action, and the social stresses he described prefigured the Communist Revolution in Russia by twenty years. He is considered one of Russia's greatest playwrights. Chekhov contracted tuberculosis in 1884, and was certain he would die an early death. In 1901, he married Olga Knipper, an actress who had played leading roles in several of his plays. Chekhov died in 1904, spending his final years in Yalta. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Great Journeys (15)
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Sakhalin Islands
Classifications
- Genres
- Travel, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 910 — History & geography Geography & travel modified standard subdivisions of Geography and travel
- LCC
- DK26 .C44 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics – Poland History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 206
- Popularity
- 158,098
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.74)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
