Chekhov, (1860～1904)
The great Russian critical realist writer at the end of the 19th century, a master of humorous satire with meaningful taste and sharp writing style, a master of short stories, and a famous dramatist writer.
Chekhov was born in a philistine family. After his father's grocery store went bankrupt, he worked as a tutor to finish high school. In 1879, he entered Moscow University to study medicine. After graduating in 1884, he practiced medicine and began literary creation.
Most of his early works were short stories, such as "The Fat Man and the Thin Man" (1883), "The Death of a Civil Servant" (1883), "Trouble" (1886), (Wanka) (1886) , reproduces the misfortune and weakness of the "little people", the miserable life of the working people and the vulgarity of the small citizens. In "Chameleon" and "Sergeant Prishibeev" (1885), the author whipped the slaves who loyally maintained the tyranny and their arrogant, violent and ugly faces, revealing the reactionary spiritual characteristics of the dark ages. In 1890, after he visited Sakhalin, a place where political prisoners were exiled, he created works that expressed major social issues, such as "The Sixth Ward" (1892), which violently criticized the tyranny of the Tsar. This novel made Lenin even more excited after reading it. Very shaken. "The House with an Attic" (1896) exposed the destruction of people's youth, talent, and happiness by Tsarist Russian society, and satirized the futility of the reformist activities of the liberal Zemstvos. "Peasants" (1897) very realistically describes the extremely poor living conditions of farmers in the 1980s and 1990s, showing his concern and sympathy for the tragic fate of farmers, while "In the Canyon" exposes the vicious exploitation of rich peasants and reflects the reality of capital. The penetration of socialism into the countryside shows that the author included the performance of class struggle in Russian society as the theme of his creation. In "The Bride" (1903), he believed that the old system must perish and the new "life will come sooner or later!"
Chekhov later turned to drama creation. His main works include "Ivanov" (1887), "The Seagull" (1896), "Uncle Vanya" (1896), "Three Sisters" (1901), and The Cherry Orchard. (1903), all of which tortuously reflected the anguish and pursuit of some petty bourgeois intellectuals on the eve of the 1905 Russian Revolution. His plays contain a strong lyrical flavor and rich subtext, which are endlessly memorable. Although the story in the script is based on daily life, the plot is simple and the progress is smooth, it is full of profound symbolic significance.
His novels are short and concise, simple and simple, with compact structure, vivid plots, humorous writing style, bright language, full of musical rhythm and profound meaning. He was good at discovering people and things of typical significance from daily life, making artistic summaries through humorous plots, and creating complete typical images to reflect the Russian society at that time. His representative works "The Chameleon" and "The Man in the Trap" can be called exquisite and perfect artistic treasures in the history of Russian literature. The former has become synonymous with those who adapt to the wind, are good at disguise, and opportunistic; the latter has become the symbol of those who are conservative, timid, and afraid of change. Symbol symbolism.
With his outstanding talent for satirical humor, Chekhov added two immortal artistic images to the gallery of world literary figures. His famous saying "Simplicity is the sister of genius" has also become a motto pursued by later writers.
Chekhov had beautiful feelings for the Chinese people and once asked Gorky to visit China with him, but his wish failed due to a long illness. He died on July 15, 1904 due to worsening lung disease.
Byron (George Gordon Byron was born on January 22, 1788 in London, England - died in Greece on April 19, 1824), a British poet; writer, with a hereditary title, known as Lord Byron, who led The coquettish romantic literary figure, also translated as Bao Lun. His representative works include Childe Harold's Travels, Don Juan, etc. Don Juan is an unfinished work.
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a famous French critical realist writer in the second half of the 19th century. He was born into a declining aristocratic family in Normandy, France. After graduating from high school, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and he was drafted into the army. Two years of life in the military camp made him realize the cruelty of war, and the danger of the motherland inspired his patriotic thoughts. After the war, he went to Paris and worked as a clerk in the Admiralty and the Ministry of Education, and at the same time began literary creation. In 1880, he completed the creation of "Ball de Suif", which caused a sensation in the French literary world. Later, he left his job to engage in professional literary creation and became a disciple of Flaubert. In 10 years, he wrote more than 300 short stories and 6 novels, many of which have been widely circulated, especially the short stories, making him a short story master. The long stories include "Her Life", "Beautiful Friend" ("Junyou"), etc.; the short and medium stories include "Miss Feifei", "The Necklace", "My Uncle Jules", etc. These works satirize and expose the evils of capitalism to varying degrees, especially the corruption of people's spirits under the corruption of bourgeois ideas.
His novels also have profound attainments in artistic techniques, especially short stories. His works pay attention to the structural layout, the writing is ups and downs and fascinating, the storyline is clever and true, the ending is unexpected and reasonable; another outstanding feature is that he uses concise pen and ink to reveal the inner world of the characters, creating many vivid and vivid artistic images. .
O. Henry (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910), also translated as O. Henry, was the son of William Sydney Porter pen name. An American novelist, his short stories are well-conceived, unique in style, and famous for their O. Henry-style endings.
O. Henry was born in Greensberg, North Carolina, USA. His father was a physician. His mother died when he was three years old. He was raised by his grandmother and aunt. He loved reading, but was forced to leave school at the age of 15. He went to Texas to make a living and worked as a pharmacist, draftsman, reporter and cashier. In 1882, he got married in Austin, Texas. In 1884, he founded the humor magazine "Rolling Stone", which soon failed. He went to the "Houston Post" as a reporter and columnist. In 1887, he was accused of embezzlement while working in a bank. In 1898, he was sentenced to five years in prison and jailed.
While in prison, in order to provide for his daughter to go to school, he began to write short stories. In 1901, he was released from prison, moved to New York, and began his writing career, officially using the pen name O. Henry. In 1904, his first collection "Cabbage and the King" was published. "The Four Million" was published in 1906, including his most famous work "The Precious Gift" and his masterpieces "The Police and the Hymn", "Twenty Years Later", and "The Furnished Room for Rent". These short stories embody O. Henry cares about the little people at the bottom of society and focuses on the writing style of depicting subtle emotions. O. Henry's writing style is humorous, good at using puns, and the endings of the novels are unexpected and reasonable. This is the famous O. Henry ending. Because he writes about ordinary life, and the plots and writing style are attractive, he is quite popular. In 1907, O. Henry created "The Last Ivy Leaf". The text of the work is simple but full of emotion, which deeply touches people. In 1910 he created perhaps his most light-hearted and humorous work, "The Ransom of the Red Chief", which makes people laugh.
O. Henry began to drink heavily in his later years, and his health deteriorated. He married again in 1907, but he and his wife had disagreements and divorced a year later. His financial situation was also not good. In order to relieve the pressure of life, he had to write novels very quickly in exchange for royalties. This also led to the uneven quality of his works. O. Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1910. The O. Henry Award was established in 1919 and is awarded once a year to commend outstanding short stories. The World Pun Championship is also held every May at the O. Henry Museum in Austin.