Synopsis Cheknov once said, "A writer should be as objective as a chemist." Considered the father of the modern short story and the modern play, Chekhov's stories depict life as it actually is. A doctor himself, Chekhov's clinical analysis of realities of nineteenth century lower middle class and peasant life in a comic vein reflected in his writings of short stories and plays. He considered “medicine his wife and literature his mistress."