Anton Chekhov

Reading Anton Chekhov's stories, one feels oneself in a

melancholy day of late autumn, when the air is transparent and the outline of naked trees, narrow houses, greyish people, is sharp.

 Everything is strange, lonely, motionless, helpless… - B.W. Huebsch

Among the most pervasive elements in the writing of Chekhov is irony, especially the irony of unfulfillment. ... One form this irony takes is the realization that achievement, arriving at one's goal, seldom brings satisfaction. ... Irony is also experienced in the failure to realize hopes, in the 

pursuit of what proves to be a will-o'-the-wisp, and in lack of awareness of what the present offers. - Ruth Davies