Anton Chekhov revolutionized Russian theater through his inimitable portrayals of characters faced with complex moral dilemmas. This Norton Critical Edition includes five of Chekhov’s major plays—Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard—and three early one-act farces that inform his later work—The Bear, The Wedding, and The Celebration. Laurence Senelick’s masterful translations closely preserve Chekhov’s singular style—his abundant jokes and literary allusions and his careful use of phrase repetition to bind the plays together.
Preface
A Note on the Translations
A Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation
Phonetic Pronunciation of the Names in the Plays
General Introduction
The Texts of the
THE BEAR
Preface
The Bear
Variants
IVANOV
Preface
Ivanov
Variants
THE WEDDING
Preface
The Wedding
Variants
THE CELEBRATION
Preface
The Celebration
Variants
THE SEAGULL
Preface
The Seagull
Variants
UNCLE VANYA
Preface
Uncle Vanya
Variants
THREE SISTERS
Preface
Three Sisters
Variants
Plays
THE CHERRY ORCHARD
Preface
The Cherry Orchard
Variants
Chekhov's Letters
Criticism
THE PLAYS IN GENERAL
George Calderon·An Introduction to 'Tchekhof'
Naum Berkovsky·Chekhov, Story Writer and Dramatist
Boris Zingerman·Space in Chekhov's Plays
Jovan Hristi6·Time in Chekhov: The Inexorable and the Ironic
SPECIFIC PLAYS
Z. Paperny·The Vaudevilles
Lyov Shestov·Creation from the Void: Ivanov
Patrice Pavis·The Originality of The Seagull and Its Context
Maria Deppermann·Uncle Vanya
Jurij Striedter·Drama as a Game of Reflected Expectations
Chekhov's Three Sisters
Andrey Bely·The Cherry Orchard
Directors on Chekhov
Konstantin Stanislavsky·Second Thoughts on The Seagull
Vsevolod Meyerhold·The Naturalistic Theatre and the Theatre of Mood
Otomar Krejca·Chekhov's Plays
Giorgio Strehler·Notes on The Cherry Orchard
Jean-Louis Barrault·Why The Cherry Orchard?
Peter Brook·The Cherry Orchard: An Immense Vitality
Peter Stein·My Chekhov
Anatoly Efros·Everything to Do with Chekhov
Mark Rozovsky·Reading Uncle Vanya
Anton Chekhov: A Chronology
Selected Bibliography