Miffed's Scribblings

I was introduced to Chekhov during my college days. For obvious reasons, this author was part of the syllabus. Before approaching Chekhov, I was introduced to "Russian Formalism", a school of literary criticism in Russia. Russian Formalism and its literary scholars never excited me. Hence, my initial reaction to Chekhov was somewhat similar. I could hardly deal with and understand the works of Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Vladimir Propp, and others (all highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars). Therefore, my initial decision was to skip reading Chekhov. I had decided already, no more Russian literary giants! Thankfully that decision was revoked when my end-term exams approached. I had no choice but to read! And that was it! Once you are in Chekhov, there is no coming back. Until that time, I was judging a "book by its cover", and just for the sake of examination, I decided to take up another Russian literary scholar. But who would've known that Chek...