“It was hard and sour, but, as Poushkin said, the illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths. I saw a happy man, one whose dearest dream had come true, who had attained his goal in life, who had got what he wanted, and was pleased with his destiny and with himself.”

Russian playwright, short story writer, and physician

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright, short story writer, and physician. He worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is known for the lasting influence of his plays and stories. Chekhov’s stage work produced four classics, and his finest short fiction has long been admired by writers and critics. He is also often named, alongside Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, as one of the key figures in the rise of early modernist theatre. He practiced medicine professionally while writing literature.