Anton Chekhov was a medical doctor and writer of plays. One of his first plays was the Seagull available here on Gutenberg, about the artistic clashes and melancholy ala Shakespeare’s Hamlet (which is slyly alluded to), that Sir Tom Stoppard wrote “You can’t have too many English Seagulls: for , the Russian one will be forever elusive.”. The other three great plays he wrote was the Cherry Orchard, the Three Sisters. and the great Uncle Vanya.

Read more: C555, The Seagull and other works by Dr. Anton Chekhov

Chekhov, the Early Years

He was born on January 29 1860 in small seaport town of Taganrog, Rostov, Russia. His father was a former serf. Chekhov was a brilliant student and was so successful a doctor that he took over support for his family (Saturn 23 Leo 44 opposite Sun 08 Aquarius 50 mutually receptive). Then having some free time, took up writing much like John Grisham who said he wrote his several of his books late at night catching a few hours into between his law studies. When the muse calls, one must answer.

The Modernist

Chekhov along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg are considered the great playwrights of the modern age (see his Jupiter conjunct the Arabian Part of Tragedy). but his short stories, which are more comical like Gogol, are a tour de force (Mercury in Capricorn opposite Jupiter in Cancer exalted).

In 1901, he married Olga Knipper, an actress from the Moscow Art Theatre. but by now his health was in decline from the tuberculosis he caught young and he was frequenting spas. While staying at one, in Badenweiler, Germany, he died in the early hours of July 15, 1904, at the age of 44.

Patterns

• He has 3 oppositions if one counts the Midheaven to the Part of Fortune. The other two are Uranus to Mars, a rather tough opposition and out of bounds, and Mercury opposite Jupiter far kinder.
• Those oppositions make him according to Marc Jones Cardinal Positive which makes him a pioneer in his writing.
• His Ascendant at 03 Cancer 17 gets the symbol of “I see that side of the Moon which is never seen before by the inhabitants of this world” from the Charubel. The English mystic writes that this suggests a strange character that no one really understands.
• He has a grand trine in empathetic water, starting with newly discovered Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, to Mars in its ruler Scorpio and Jupiter who is exalted in Cancer. Quite a trine.
• Like John S. Mill, he has no conjunctions, and is Splash planetary pattern.

Youtube has some of his plays; the yare always being produced. Catch one…honestly, catch them all.