Master of the modern short story and drama
A Russian writer and physician, one of the founders of the modern short story and drama. Writing alongside his medical practice, with a cool and restrained touch he caught the unspoken loss and futility of ordinary lives. He gives no conclusions and passes no judgment, only presents the ambiguity and sorrow of life itself. His plays The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull have almost no violent plot, yet in the trivial dialogue of the everyday write to the full the decline of a class and the loneliness of the heart — from him modern drama learned that "nothing happens, yet everything is happening."
Chekhov left a famous rule of drama: "If in the first act a gun hangs on the wall, then in the third act it must go off." He meant the economy and necessity of narrative — nothing superfluous should be on stage. This "Chekhov’s gun" is still an iron law for playwrights and novelists today.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.