Chekhov, Anton Books

The Plays of Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov, Paul Schmidt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A great set of plays and very readable 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I haven't read Chekhov's plays in Russian so I can't say anything about the translation except that it is very readable.

Chekhov had his own unique style in that his plays were usually mere verbal interaction with most significant action taking place offstage. Even though most of his plays, especially his four act plays, take place at rich, country houses far removed from any sort of normal life, he seems to pick out timeless themes of humanness in several characters and weave them together into an almost plotless commentary. The fact that his plays have endured as long as they have are a testament to his genius and his skill at seeing timeless ideas.

Chekhov's long plays are always revered and remembered as classics but this collection gives the reader a chance to see what an unbelievable short play writer he was. They have their own special feel apart from his longer works and give short little insights to the comedy and often comedic tragedy of human nature and human absurdity.

The Cherry Orchard, the Seagull, and Uncle Vanya are classic four acts by Chekhov but don't overlook Ivanov. It was one of his earlier ones and one of my favorites. Chekhov does a good job of making several unique characters and having them react around the central situation and an older man and a younger woman give you an interesting view at an interesting love story.

For short plays I would recommend "The Bear", "The Proposal", and "A Reluctant Tragic Hero". Especially in the Proposal Chekhov's comedy is especially portrayed.

This collection, in general, an all-around good read. Well worth reading this collection of one of the best playwrights.

Editorial Review:

These critically hailed translations of The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters and the other Chekhov plays are the only ones in English by a Russian-language scholar who is also a veteran Chekhovian actor.

Without compromising the spirit of the text, Paul Schmidt accurately translates Chekhov's entire theatrical canon, rescuing the humor "lost" in most academic translations while respecting the historical context and original social climate.

Schmidt's translations ofChekhov have been successfully staged all over the U.S. by such theatrical directors as Lee Strasberg, Elizabeth Swados, Peter Sellars and Robert Wilson. Critics have hailed these translations as making Chekhov fully accessible to American audiences. They are also accurate -- Schmidt has been described as "the gold standard in Russian-English translation" by Michael Holquist of the Russian department at Yale University.

The Cherry Orchard

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Is it a comedy or not? 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I couldn't figure out whether this was a comedy or not. It says at the beginning of the play that it is, but for the most part it seemed really depressing to me. I know technically you can't call it a tragedy because the heroine didn't cause her own downfall, but still, it most certainly was NOT a comedy.
All that aside, I thought the play was fairly enjoyable. It is basically about a rich family in Russia who are forced to sell their estate and cherry orchard because they have no money. Altogether, it was fairly interesting, but confusing. The character's names were so similar that I had to keep looking back to figure out who was who. Three stars.

Checkhov for Dummies 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is an abysmal production. To anyone outside of LA the accents will become tiresome (I'm so `stoopid'; in the `bairth'-house etc) and the translation and acting style make this play sound like an episode of a soap opera. The recording begins like so many audio books with an unnecessary spoken introduction - "The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov ...." (like if I was expecting Dolly Parton!). And to make matters worse, the announcer claims it is recorded before a live audience. It is patently not so, there are sound effects galore, including a pathetically obvious laugh track purported to be the audience but not one hint of an actor walking across the stage and, apart from the canned laughter, not a cough, murmur, shuffle or peep from the audience. Nice try LA Theatreworks, it might do for a bored 10th grader who is too lazy to read the text but the whole thing sounds like a bunch of second rate actors with no idea of what they doing. They might get walk-ons in The Bold and the Beautiful if they try harder but this fake acting in front of a fake audience is an insult.

Editorial Review:

Chekov's great tragicomic eulogy for a passing way of life is superbly adapted to make a powerful and beautifully playable drama. Plays for Performance Series.

Five Plays: Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard (Oxford World's Classics)

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Nice, but not Chekhov 2 out of 5 stars.
14 of 17 people found this review helpful.

This translation is a nice effort -- at rewriting the original, extremely subtle text as a modern English drama according to the tastes and limitations of the translator. If you're looking to capture the true genius of Chekhov, try another.

Uncle Vanya the greatest play of the last century 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 9 people found this review helpful.

There are only two modern dramatists that are masters one is Peter Shaffer who wrote the maliciously marvelous Amadeus and the plays of Anton Chekhov the best of which is uncle vanya, the best dipiction of real life its tragedy, its joy and its drama. From the Tolstoyan Astrov, to the depressed Vanya, to the beautiful but vain Yelena. This is a play about life...all people can relate to it in some way and I think Chekhov's philosophy of life is...sublime

Editorial Review:

Chekhov's worldwide reputation as a dramatist rests on five great plays: Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. All are presented in this collection, taken from the authoritative Oxford Chekhov, in Ronald Hingley's acclaimed translation. Hingley has also written an introduction specifically for this volume in which he provides a detailed history of Chekhov's involvement in the theater and an assessment of his accomplishment as a dramatist.

Chekhov: The Four Major Plays: Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The most actable translations I've read 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I've been reading and studying these plays for years now, and have read through and worked out of numerous different translations. Curt Columbus' versions of these four mighty plays are exceedingly well done. They are eminently actable and highly accessible to a modern audience. Yes, he does make some small adjustments, notably choosing to call each character by one consistent name, instead of using all of the various forms. Purists may scoff, but it removes a barrier to understanding for a modern theatregoer. Highly recommended for anyone directing Chekhov or teaching it to students.

Editorial Review:

In these fresh, vibrant new translations of Chekhov's four greatest plays--Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and Cherry Orchard--the brilliant theatrical translator Curt Columbus recaptures the master's open-ended simplicity. Curt Columbus loves actors and his new translations of Chekhov's four major plays are his gift to them. These are wonderfully actable, clear, and concise, and Columbus has perfectly captured Chekhov's unique blend of comic and tragic sensibilities. --Robert Falls, Artistic Director, Goodman Theatre.

The Complete Plays

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

New Translation and Heavily Annotated 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

A brilliant translation for all lovers of great and enduring literature.

W.W. Norton has published all of Chekhov's dramatic works in a single stunning volume. The translator is a professor of drama at Tufts University and is fluent in the Russian of the period. This volume contains works that have not previously been translated. The plays are heavily annotated for clearer understanding and appreciation of the nuances and subtleties of the original. Before each play, the author includes an interpretation in the context of Russian history at the time. The plays are consequently better understood and enjoyed.

The translator includes variants of the plays, different endings encouraged by the actors who played the parts, unfinished plays, and dialogues.

Senelick includes an illuminating chronology of Chekhov's life in the context of history. Chekhov wrote his great plays while practicing medicine as a physician and suffering from tuberculosis.

Editorial Review:

"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.

The Seagull

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Jealousy, ambition, despair 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The play is set on an estate in the Russian countryside, owned by the former state councillor Peter Sorin. He lives there with his nephew Konstantin Trepliev, the son of a famous actress and himself an aspiring playwright. His mother, Irina Abkadina, is a miserly and self-centered woman fascinated by her own fame and beauty. The only object of her affection is the famour writer Trigorin.

An abstract play written by Trepliev and performed by his young girlfriend Nina Zarietchnaya fails miserably, and Nina turns her attention instead to the more successful Trigorin. The young Trepliev attempts suicide, then challenges Trigorin to a duel. All his efforts are in vain, and Nina leaves for Moscow to be with her idol. Trigorin, however, soon forgets about her, and her career as an actress is even more miserable than Trepliev's career as a writer. Both youngsters thus face tragic fates as their failed ambition, jealousy, and misguided love and anger carry them to destruction.

This subtle work deals with issues such as unrequited love, jealousy, betrayal and vanity without being overly sentimental. It also addresses the spectacular effect people of charisma or celebrity can have on ordinary people, and suggests that this great power is a dangerous tool in the hands of people who are often hostages of their own reputations.

Editorial Review:

Student edition of Chekhov's classic, in the highly renowned translation by best-selling playwright Michael Frayn, author of Copenhagen.

All the Methuen Student Editions contain commentaries, contexts, chronologies and notes on the translations by experts in theatre studies.

Uncle Vanya

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Microsoft Reader Doesn't Print 1 out of 5 stars.
8 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I was disappointed in Microsoft Reader's inability to print. I like the concept of near instant availability for e-books, but prefer to read from the printed page instead of staring at a computer screen. Funny, too, how I found out I couldn't print my document until after I had purchased this e-book and installed the Microsoft Reader software (with the additional step of having to "activate" a pc for it). In fact, Microsoft Reader's Help section doesn't make mention of the fact that one can't print its documents. A search in the help topics only produces the result that the word "print" can't be found.

I'll avoid the Microsoft Reader e-book format in the future.

Editorial Review:

David Lan's new version of one of Chekhov's greatest plays, was commissioned for a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic. Directed by Katie Mitchell, it premiered at the Young Vic, London, in March 1998, a century after its Uncle Vanya is the first of Chekhov's three great masterpieces. Set on a remote farm in the Ukraine, it tells of two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere, and a flirtation that brings disaster. Written towards the end of the 1890s, it casts a diamond-hard glance towards our century."A notably sharp, bright translation" (The Times)

Five Comic One-Act Plays (Dover Thrift Editions)

Anton Chekhov

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Editorial Review:

Humorous gems by one of the masters of modern drama, including The Anniversary, a frenetic, behind-the-scenes look at the goings-on in a bank; An Unwilling Martyr, a humorous recital of an overburdened man’s chores and obligations; as well as The Wedding, The Bear and The Proposal. Immensely affordable edition for students, general readers and amateur and pressional theater groups.

Plays

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Somewhat interesting 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I had to read this for a class that I had. I know it is representative of Russian literature, but it's very bleak and depressing. None of the plays have a really happy ending, but they do have good endings. My least favorite of the plays was Three Sisters, and my favorite was Cherry Orchard. Three Sisters, in my opinion is about the most bleak, unsatisfying, and depressing play about life and love I have ever read. Cherry Orchard is, in my opinion well thought out, bad things happen in this play, but there are reasons for these occurances, and it also has the most satisfying ending of all the plays in this book. Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and Ivanov aren't really bad, but aren't spectacular. If you want to read a light-hearted and easy going play, don't read this. They were interesting enough for me to give this four stars, they aren't bad for the most part, but aren't spectacular either.

Editorial Review:

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.

Chekhov: The Essential Plays (Modern Library Classics)

Anton Chekhov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great plays 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Let's face it, Anton Chekhov's works will always be a masterpiece, no matter which pieces of work one decides to read and evaluate. These essential plays (The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard) were very well selected for their inclusion in the "Essentials".

I only give four stars not because I didn't enjoy the plays, but because I believe there could have been others replaced by the ones they decided to include. Once again, that is perhaps only personal preference. All of the plays included are dramatic and comical in their own witty ways. Thorough enjoyment is almost guaranteed in this Modern Classic Library edition of Chekhov. Out of respect for the author and the translator, I will refrain from mentioning other stories that could have been added in lieu of the ones chosen. Maybe I'm being selfish in only giving four stars based on a personal opinion of the plays included, but, after all, that is why this is a review, right? Enjoy the book anyway. A great addition to your Checkov collection.

Editorial Review:

Because Chekhov’s plays convey the universally recognizable, sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic, frustrations of decent people trying to make sense of their lives, they remain as fresh and vigorous as when they were written a century ago. Gathered here in superb new renderings by one of the most highly regarded translators of our time—versions that have been staged throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain—are Chekhov’s four essential masterpieces for the theater.