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