CHEKHOFF, or TCHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovitch, Russian author: b. Taganrog 1860; d. 1904. Of humble he yet received a good education, studied medicine at the Uni versity of Moscow, and practised only about a year in a small cholera hospital. At the age of 19 he began writing short stories under the pen-name of aChekhonte." The favorable reception accorded his first volume of stories encouraged him to desert medicine for litera ture, where his scientific training was to prove of inestimable value. His mental trend was from the first inclined to the banal aspects of Russian life. With grim satire he seized on all that was petty, mean and sordid in human character, and with Gorky, became one of the most prominent exponents of the Russian school of sordid realists. Chekhoff's writings reveal a crowded stage of humble characters— aristocrats are excluded—photographed from life, merchants, students, priests, schoolmasters, saloon-keepers, magistrates, neurotics, lunatics officials, etc., with all their mean sordidness and narrow-minded simplicity. Where he intro duces doctors — which is frequently — he rev els in describing physical and mental diseases, of which latter (The Black Monk' is the best example. An atmosphere of sadness and hope lessness pervades his characters and impresses itself upon the reader; his vivid portrayal of poverty and squalor, dishonesty and vice, frivolity, drunkenness, misery and coarseness, is certainly depressing even if true to life. Yet
Chekhoff is withal a great master; brilliant, of penetrating psychology, with a remarkable flow of language, and a weird faculty of suddenly turning a humorous situation into a painful tragedy. His attempts at dramatic writing are less successful, being, at first, feeble dramatiza tions of some of his stories. One of his best plays is described elsewhere (see CHERRY ORCHARD) ; others are (Ivanoff' ; 'The Sea gull' i 'Uncle Vanya, or Country Life> ; 'A Marriage of Calculation' ; and 'The Three Sisters.' Most of his works are translated into French and German, some into English. Among his numerous stories are 'The Sorceress,' 'Agatha,' (The Enemies,' (The Nightmare,' (The Twilight,> 'The Steppe,' 'A Melancholy Tale,' 'A Stranger's Story,' (Room No. (The Gabled House,' (The Kiss,' (Philosophy at Home,' 'Sorrow,' 'The Biter Bit,' 'In Exile,' (Sleepy-Eye,> (Street Scene in Russia,' 'From a Doctor's Practice.' He left 10 volumes of works.
or CHEL, an Indian priest of Yucatan who flourished in the 15th century. His name is mentioned in almost every Yucatanic legend, and fragments of history composed by him are found in documents of the missions of Yuca tan and Central America.