Plays: Ivanov; The Seagull; Uncle Vanya; Three Sisters; The Cherry Orchard »

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a physician and writer of short stories and plays.

Peter Carson learned Russian during his time in the Navy and at home from his mother. He has worked for many years in publishing in London.

Richard Gilman is professor emeritus of playwriting and dramatic literature at Yale University's School of Drama. He has been drama critic for Newsweek, Commonweal, and The Nation, and is the author of Chekhov's Plays and The Making of Modern Drama.

Anton Chekhov wrote that "narrative is my legal wife and drama a flamboyant, rowdy, impudent, exhausting mistress." At a time when the Russian stage was dominated by farces, formulaic melodramas, and vaudevilles, Chekhov created plays that focused on characters grappling with moral questions. His works baffled his audiences, but his sensitive explorations of love, loss, and time as well as his portrayal of complex characters and ambiguities, revolutionized the theater with an exhilarating new form of drama.

This volume includes new translations, full explanatory notes, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, and a glossary, as well as an introduction by eminent Chekhov scholar Richard Gilman.