Frederick Reiken: The Legacy of Anton Chekhov (July 2007)

Frederick Reiken explores the ways in which Chekhov’s stories made a radical departure from the event-plot variety of story popular at his time, and shows how Chekhov’s original, character-driven style provided the blueprint for short stories today.  Looking at a range of Chekhov’s stories, as well as at Chekhov’s influence on writers as diverse as William Faulkner and Shirley Jackson, Reiken argues that Chekhov should rightly be considered the father of the modern short story.