Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle was born in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. His
father, Charles E. Doyle, was an artist and architect by profession, but he
worked as a clerk in an office. The father died young and the Doyles were
very poor.
Arthur’s mother was a very good story-teller and he remembered her
fantastic stories all his life. The talent of story-telling was inherited
by Arthur from his mother and it helped him as a writer.During his school
years he read much, and he often told his school friends long and
interesting stories, getting cakes and sweets for that.
After leaving school Conan Doyle became a student of the medical
faculty at the university of Edinburgh. In this third year of studies he
went as a ship doctor to the Arctic and upon graduating from the
university, he again went in a ship to western Africa.
He began his medical practice in a small English town Southsea, where
he spent eight years. In 1887, he published his first detective story “A
study in Scarlet”. Its main characters were Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson,
and they became the most popular characters of a great many of Conan
Doyle’s stories.
“A scandal in Bohemia” opened a collection of detective stories under
the title “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. The story was published in
1891 and soon after that Baker Street became the well-known address of
Sherlock Holmes.
The readers asked for more and more stories about Sherlock Holmes and
for two years Conan Doyle wrote them. When he had written about twenty
stories with Sherlock Holmes as the main detective, he was so tired of
these stories that he decided “ to kill Sherlock Holmes”. He wrote a story,
which he named “Holmes’s last case” (1893). In this story Holmes was killd
during his struggle with Professor Moriarty. The writer hoped that after
that he could begin writing other books.
But the readers did not wish to lose their favourite character and ten
years later the famous detective appeared again. In 1901 –1902 one of Conan
Doyle’s best stories “The hound of the Baskervilles” was published.
In 1891 Conan Doyle gave up his medical work and devoted all his time
to his literaty activity. He also travelled much. He visited Europe, the
USA and Egypt. In Norway he met Jerome K. Jerome, who wrote about that fact
in one of his books.
Beside detective stories, Conan Doyle also wrote historic novels, war
books and an anticolonial book about the Belgian Congo. His two fantastic
stories “The lost world” (1912) and “The Poisoned Belt” (1913) were quite
successful.
All his life Conan Doyle liked sports, he skied played golf and went in
for boxing.
He died in 1930, After his death, the famous detective Sherlock Holmes,
together with his friend Dr. Watson, continued to live on the pages of
Conan Doyle’s books. They are amound the favourite characters of English
literature.
Tourists coming to London always go to visit Bakers street to see the
house where Sherlock Holmes lived.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
The world is rich in remarkable authors, but I think that Anton
Pavlovich Chekhov was one of the greatest authorities. He is my favourite
writer. In my opinion, he is the greatest Russian dramatist and short-
story writer. I’m never tired of reading and rereading his plays and
humorous stories.
Chekhov was born in 1860 in Taganrog. In 1879 he went to Moscow, where
he studies medicine. Though he practised little as a doctor in his
lifetime, he was prouder of his medical knowledge than of his writing
talent.
While in college, Chekhov wrote humorous sketches for comic papers to
support his family. He collected the best ones into a volume, Motley
Stories, in 1886. The book attracted the attention of the publisher of the
Novoje Vremja, Russia’s largest paper, and Chekhov was asked to contribute
stories regularly.
Chekhov, as an established writer, was able to develop a style of his
own. Though he never gave up writing comic stories, he began working in a
more serious vein. In 1887 Ivanov, his first play, established Chekhov as
a dramatist. From then on, he concentrated on writing plays, as well as
short stories.
Chekhov was seriously ill. He had tuberculosis and knew what it meant.
By 1892 his health was so bad that he was afraid to spend another winter
in Moscow. He bought a small estate near a village Melikhovo, 50 miles
from Moscow. He spent 5 years there, and those were happy years in spite
of the illness. He wrote some of his best stories there, including Ward
No.6, several well-known one-act comedies and two of his serious dramatic
masterpieces, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya.
The Seagull was first staged in the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg.
It was a complete failure because of the dull and clumsy production. It was
a cruel blow to Chekhov. However, the play was successfully performed as
the first production of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. From then on,
Chekhov was closely connected with this theatre and with its founder, K.S.
Stanislavsky. In 1901 he married an Art Theatre actress, Olga Knipper, who
acted in his play The Three Sisters the same year.
Chekhov’s health went from bad to worse and he had to spent the
remaining years in the Crimea and other health spas.
The Cherry Orchard, his last play, was produced in 1904. Soon after the
first night Chekhov died. He was 44.
Chekhov had an immense influence on the 20th century drama. Besides,
several generations of writers both in Russia and abroad studied and
imitated Chekhov to perfect their own literary style.
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