hfbamafan wrote:
In the English-Speaking world Anton Chekhov is by far better known for his plays than for his short stories, but it was during his lifetime that Chekhov's stories made him popular while his plays were given a more ambivalent reception, even by his fellow writers.
In my opinion ,
Quote:
A)by far better known for his plays than for his short stories, but it was during his lifetime that
* the second half sentence has no working verb . "that" is used incorrectly
it would have made sense to say -
Blah Blah , but during his lifetime chekhov's stories made him popular <> ...
or
Blah Blah , but during his lifetime it was chekhov's stories that made him popular<> ...Quote:
B)by far better known for his plays than he was for his short stories, but during his lifetime
the inclusion of "he was" renders the sentence with bad parallelism.
Should be - better known for
his plays than
his stories.
or better known
for his plays than
for his storiesQuote:
C)Known far better for his plays than he was for his short stories, but during his lifetime
Bad parallelism - "for his plays" is compared with "he was for his stories"
second half of the independent clause has two verbs - "Was" and "made". I dont know if there is term for these kind issues (quiet bad with remembering jargons) , but I know the sentence makes no sense .
Usage of "It" is incorrect
Had the sentence read - "blah blah , but during his lifetime it was C's stories THAT made him........", would have been correct.
Quote:
D)far better known for his plays than were his short stories, but it was during his lifetime that
meaning issue- says - AC's stories were known for plays . - i.e AC is far better known for his plays than were his short stories (known for his plays) - comparision between "AC known fir his plays" and "his stories known for his plays"
Also The second part of the sentence says something like this -
it was during AC's lifetime , that the stories made him popular ( perhaps as opposed to any other time , may be after his death , or whatever). "IT" is referring to lifetime , instead of "stories" , (is pointing to some period rather than stories. This is not the intended meaning. The sentence intended to say "during his lifetime , IT was his stories and not plays that made him popular".
Quote:
E)far better known for his plays than for his short stories, but during his lifetime
Correct
HTH
Jyothi