Classics
6 total works
The dramatic works of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) present the actions of ordinary people. He avoids any explicit political treatment, but the depth and subtlety of his art has generated a wealth of interpretation. His representation of human relationships is infinitely sympathetic, and each play contains at least one character who expresses Chekhov's hopes for a brighter future. "The Cherry Orchard" and "Three Sisters" was first published in this translation in 1951. "The Seagull", "Uncle Vania", "The Bear", "The Proposal" and "The Jubilee" were first published in this translation in 1954.
A further collection of stories by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). consists of "The Duel", "Murder", "The Wife", "The Black Monk", "Terror" and "Big Volodya and Small Volodya", and complements two existing anthologies of short stories, "Lady With Lapdog and Other Stories" and "The Kiss and Other Stories".
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov(1860-1904) may be likened to his contemporaries, the "pointilliste" painters. Piece by piece, episode by episode, character by character, he constructs in prose a survey of the human condition. as David Magarshack writes in his introduction, on reading these stories 'one gets the impression of holding life itself, like a fluttering bird, in one's cupped hands'.
A selection of ten stories written when Chekhov had reached his maturity as a short storywriter, between 1887 and 1902. They show him as a master of compression and a probing analyst, unmasking the mediocrity, lack of ideals, and spiritual and physical inertia of his generation. In these grim pictures of peasant life, and telling portraits of men and women enmeshed in trivialities, in the finely observed, suffocating atmosphere of provincial towns with their pompous officials, frustrated, self-seeking wives, spineless husbands, Chekhov does not expound any system of morality, but leaves the reader to draw what conclusion he will.
The diversity of stories in this collection is great, their psychological depth and philosophical richness even greater. Chekhov (1860-1904) composed most of the stories in the 1890s, although 'The Fiancee, ' written at the same time as his dramatic masterpiece, "The Cherry Orchard, " was not completed until 1903; 'The Fiancee' represents a turning point in Chekhov's career, with the high note of optimism and with its heroine, Nadya, 'a positive woman of action, ' who ultimately rejects philistine materialism for a life of hard work and self-denial.