Description
Book SynopsisFive masterful dramatic works from one of the world's best-loved playwrights, including The Seagull—now a major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan, Elizabeth Moss, and Annette BeningAt a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the everyday lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people.
Ivanov depicts a man stifled by inactivity and lost idealism, and
The Seagull contrasts a young man's selfish romanticism with the stoicism of a woman cruelly abandoned by her lover. With 'the scenes from country life' of
Uncle Vanya, his first fully mature play, Chekhov developed his own unique dramatic world, neither tragedy nor comedy. In
Three Sisters the Prozorov sisters endlessly dream of going to Moscow to escape the monotony of provincial life, while his comedy
The Cherry Orchard portrays characters futilely clinging to the past as
Table of ContentsPlaysIntroduction
Further Reading
Chronology
Translator's Note
Glossary
Ivanov
The Seagull
Uncle Vanya
Three Sisters
The Cherry Orchard
Notes
