Chekhov, Observer Without Illusion by Daniel Grillès (review)

1970 BOOK REVIEWS 435 analysis of tragic elements in Lights 01 Bohemia~ and Sumner Greenfield's essay on the esperpento. This book is a landmark in modem Spanish drama studies. and it is to be hoped that it will open the way to further study of Valle-Inchin in English. GEORGE E. WELLWARTH Pennsylvania State University CHEKHOV, OBSERVER WITHOUT ILLUSION, by Daniel Grilles, translated by Charles Lam Markmann. Funk and WagnaIls: New York, 1968. 428 pp. $10.00. This translation of a new biography of Chekhov by the Belgian CrItiC Daniel Gilles was originally published in Paris by Julliard in 1967. It is a pleasantly writlen and competently translated work, a trifle verbose, which sketches in considerable detail the life of Chekhov and the literary landscape in which be moved, particularly with reference to Tolstoy and Gorky. For these fcasons it should surely interest the casual reader. It does not, however, add anything to what is generally known of Chekhov. nor does it .present any new insights into his life or works. Nor can it compare either in accuracy or vividness with sudt an authoritative work as Ernest Simmons's Chekhov, A. Biography. . Mr. Gilles has evidently read widely in the critical literature surrounding Chekhov, mainly in works written in French. but he does not exhibit any special familiarity with the works of Chekhov himself. aside from his letters and journals. Thus he gives little more than passing notice to such significant stories as Tile Steppe, Ward No.6, Th e Murder, or The Black Monk, and perhaps this is as well. for it would seem that the deeper Mr. Gmes goes into his material, the more decisively the point eludes bim. The Duel is a good example: It is an· alyzed without any mention of Nadezhda,' the central figure of its plot, just as the account of Ward No.6 makes no ' mention of Ivan Dmitritch. upon whose madness the story turns. The fact that Mr. Gilles fi."ds these stories mysterious is doubtIess excusable. since they are in fact mysterious, in the sense, at least, of Ie mystere of Mallarme. But it is not easy to excuse the superficial handling of Chekhov's plays. In some cases, as in The Tl1ree Sisters, the material does not seem to have been fresh in the author's mind at the time of writing. In the analysis of this play. we read: "A random event is to awaken all these dreamers. A regiment is posted to the little town. and at once everything is altered for the three sisters. Their solitude is invaded...." (p. !H7) This resume would perhaps not have surprised Chekhov. long accustomed to critical misconception, but it will come as a surprise to anyone familiar with his work. almost as m.uch as Mr. GiUes's general conclusion as to the drift of Chekhov's plays: "The major and almost obsessive theme of his plays is that of the frustration of every human destiny." (p. 421) To this it may be said, in general. that while Mr. Gilles has not succeeded in misunderstanding completely all of Chekhov's major drama. he has come reasonably close. This may be the result of his concentration on the life rather than the work of Chekhov. It was perhaps his hope that in this manner he would illuminate the work of this extraordinary man. He has, unhappily, only succeeded in obfuscating further 436 February what was'already dark. The moral is' clear: it is in his works that ·we must seek Chekhov, not in the details of his comings and goings, his 8irtations, or his money .problems. It might perhaps be added that it requires humor to evaluate the -work - of a great ironist. This biography is a very earnest and sympathetic, but completely hum.orle.s~ work. Moreover, Mr. Gilles shows no aptitude whatever for the art of the drama and, whatever its virtues, this book is not a work likely to recommend itself to students of the theater. MAURICE VALENCY Columbia University GIRAUDOUX: THREE FACES OF DESTINY, by Robert Cohen, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1968, 164 pp. Price $8.00. Robert Cohen's book is a good book...