concept
Lights
"Lights"
also: Огни
Chekhov's 1888 story, published in Severny Vestnik, whose deliberately unresolved ending -- refusing to adjudicate between the engineer Ananyev's and the student von Steinberg's opposing views of pessimism -- is the subject of Chekhov's disagreement with Shcheglov in this letter; Chekhov defends the ambiguity as honest, since "in this world nothing can be made out."
Reading notes
- To I. L. Leontyev, 9 June 1888. Sumy. §5 my "Lights"
Chekhov's 1888 story in Severny Vestnik, whose deliberately unresolved ending is the subject of the disagreement referenced here; Chekhov defends leaving the philosophical dispute between his characters unsettled as intellectually honest.