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anecdotal nature of the story, he was able to pierce through the crustaceous exterior of an event to the living creature inside. What enabled him to do so was a genius for psychological acuteness and an absolute control of tone - a subtle and unique blend of the melancholy, the farcical and the ironic

p 84

Chekhov has a quality to be found equally in good journalism and good fiction, and for opposite reasons. In the first, the quality of tone never sabotages the verity of fact. In the second, the verity of fact never menaces the quality of tone. A journalist doesn't need a theme since he already has a subject. A fiction writer has a theme and is looking for a subject.

p 155

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Chekhov is not a realist: narrative and fact are not of supreme interest to him. He is not a formalist: he is not interested in methods meant to provide aesthetic pleasure. Character is his obsession, but what he means by character is different from what other writers mean. Psychology, yes: but he also sees characters as motifs, as repeated surroundings of the same melody, as if they were subjects in a musical composition. (Proust)... and Chekhov's plays have this one thing in common: though conflicts of interest exist, it is the motif rather than dramatic tension that is the clue to structure.

p 161

[Phrase in Margin:] Sept 5 - 1983

Lectures on Russian Literature - Nabokov - Chekhov

Chekhov was the first among writers to rely so much upon the undercurrents of suggestion to convey a definite meaning

p 251