The Complete Plays

by Anton Chekhov, Laurence Senelick (Translator)

Overview

"The most complete collection of the Russian playwright's repertoire."—Vogue

This stunning new translation presents the only truly complete edition of the plays of one of the greatest dramatists in history. Anton Chekhov is a unique force in modern drama, his works interpreted and adapted internationally and beloved for their brilliant wit and understanding of the human condition.This volume contains work never previously translated, including the newly discovered farce The Power of Hypnotism, the first version of Ivanov, Chekhov's early humorous dialogues, and a description of lost plays and those Chekhov intended to write but never did.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393292923
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1136
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Anton Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860 in Taganrog, Russia. He graduated from the University of Moscow in 1884. Chekhov died of tuberculosis in Germany on July 14, 1904, shortly after his marriage to actress Olga Knipper, and was buried in Moscow.
Laurence Senelick is the Fletcher Professor of Drama and Oratory at Tufts University and author of more than a dozen books, including the award-winning The Chekhov Theatre and The Changing Room: Sex, Drag, and the Theatre. He is director of his own translations of Gogol’s The Inspector General (1998) and Euripides’ The Bakkhai (2001).

Table of Contents

Preface     xiii
Anton Chekhov's Brief Life     xv
Chronology of Chekhov's Life     xxvii
A Note on the Translation     xxxv
Guide to Transliteration and Pronunciation     xli
Introduction     xlvii
Early Experiments
Untitled Play (Without Patrimony [Disinherited] or Platonov)     3
Variants     195
Along the Highway     222
Collaboration
The Power of Hypnotism   Anton Chekhov   Ivan Shcheglov     251
Humorous Dialogues and Parodies
The Fool, or The Retired Captain     267
A Young Man     270
Unclean Tragedians and Leprous Playwrights     272
An Ideal Examination     278
"Chaos-Vile in Rome"     281
A Mouth as Big as All Outdoors     285
Honorable Townsfolk     287
At the Sickbed     291
The Case of the Year 1884     292
A Drama     294
Before the Eclipse     295
The Sudden Death of a Steed, or The Magnanimity of the Russian People!     299
Plays
Swan Song (Calchas)     305
Variants     315
The Evils of Tobacco, First Version     317
Ivanov, First Version     324
Variants     404
The Bear     415
Variants     433
The Proposal     434
Variants     451
Ivanov, Final Version     453
Variants     527
Tatyana Repina     533
An Involuntary Tragedian (From the Life of Vacationers)     555
Variant     562
The Wedding     563
Variants     580
The Wood Goblin     584
Variants     667
The Celebration     705
Variants     722
The Eve of the Trial     725
Variants     733
The Seagull     734
Variants     803
Uncle Vanya     811
Variant     873
Three Sisters     874
Variants     957
The Evils of Tobacco, Final Version     966
The Cherry Orchard     971
Variants     1043
Lost and Unwritten Plays     1049

Editorial Reviews

Translations of Chekhov's work have been reviewed before in these pages. The concern now, as then, is the ease with which a particular translation can be voiced by the actor. Director, writer, and translator Curt Columbus's work for the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago is notable for its ability to bring Chekhov across the footlights to an audience out for the evening; Senelick (drama & oratory, Tufts Univ.) offers something of a different order entirely. His introductions to and annotations of the plays are of immense scholarly interest and will be important to both Russian and theater departments. Senelick's accomplishment is astounding, and he has done some amazing detective work in assembling variants of the plays, untranslated work (e.g., the newly discovered "The Power of Hypnosis"), and dialog pieces that Chekhov wrote for comic journals in the 1880s. Audiences would probably rather hear Columbus's more colloquial version, while Senelick's high-toned, even elegant dialog might work best for scholars or for reading aloud at home. Strongly recommended for academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/05.]-Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Moorhead Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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