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FeaturesNovember 2012 Chekhov's enlightenment On the life, evolution, and legacy of Anton Chekhov. Chekhov’s contemporaries wondered: What sort of Russian writer was he? He had no solution to the ultimate questions. With no “general idea” to teach, wasn’t he more like a talented Frenchman or Englishman born in the wrong place? No country ever has valued literature more highly than Russia. When Tolstoy published Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky enthused that at last the existence of the Russian people had been justified! Can anyone imagine an English critic thinking England’s right to exist was in question or discovering it in Bleak House? Nations, it seemed, live in order to produce great literature, and literature exists to reveal great truths. Science, philosophy, and the other arts are all very well, but nothing rivals poetry and fiction. For Russians, literature played the same role as Scripture did for the ancient Hebrews when it was still possible to add books to the B ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 31 November 2012, on page 20 Copyright © 2013 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Chekhov-s-enlightenment-7471
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Deciphering a cigarette with Joseph Frank A look at the legacy of literary scholar and Dostoevsky biographer Joseph Frank (1918–2013). by Donald Kagan Upon his retirement from Yale, Donald Kagan considers the future of liberal education in this farewell speech. If you see something, say nothing Changes to the AP stylebook show that we’re blinding ourselves to the connections between Islamic extremism and terrorism.
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