Customer Reviews

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

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Based on the outstanding quality of his Plays and Short Stories, Anton Chekhov is commonly considered one of the most influential, respected and beloved literary figures of the twentieth century. I recommend his writing in both fields to anyone who enjoys reading great literature. The Five Plays included in this volume -- Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard -- are recognized as Chekhov's greatest and most important works as a playwright.

The problems I have with the Oxfords World's Classics edition of Chekhov's plays are: (1) the translation; (2) the absence of any shorter plays by Chekhov; (3) the scarcity of supplemental material like notes and commentary. These might seem like minor, nit-picky complaints; however, they become major flaws when we compare the Oxford editions with other available collections of Chekhov plays.

In my opinion, the Hingley translation was over-anglicized and thus missing the "Russian" feel of other translations. Compare it, for instance, with the Selenick: "Misha" (in Selenick) becomes "Michael" (in Hingley)
"Lyubov Andreevna" becomes "Mrs. Ranevskaya"
"Lent, third week" is shortened to "before easter"
"peasant" is rendered as "country bumpkin"

Here's what I recommend instead. These editions also contain Chekhov's 5 major plays, but all go above and beyond the basic, "bare-bones-package" of the Oxford edition.

Anton Chekhov's Selected Plays (Norton Critical Editions): includes additional short plays: The Bear, The Wedding and The Celebration. Also nearly 100 pages of Chekhov's letters in which he discusses his plays. Also 100-page sections of commentary by literary critics and Directors of theater who have taken part in the production of the plays themselves. Translated and heavily annotated by Laurence Senelick.

The Plays of Anton Chekhov: Nine plays total. Acclaimed translated by Chekhovian actor Paul Schmidt.

The Complete Plays: Also the Selenick translation. The most complete collection of Chekhov's stage works currently available. 1000+ pages.

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.

I read The Seagull in high school and decided to pick up my copy again recently. I got part way through Ivanov and stopped because of how inauthentic the translation sounded. Now that I'm an adult and have had many more years of reading works in translation and exposure to the philosophy of language, I see many problems with Roger Hingley's translation.

He takes many liberties with phrases and I did not get a feel for the original Russian text, almost erasing all the Russian-ness from it in Ivanov. Do Russians sound like stodgy English geezers? Here's an example from Act III Scene I: "French know what they want. They only want to make mincemeat of Brother Fritz, but Germany's another cup of tea, old boy. Germany has other fish to fry besides France." Hingley plays fast and loose with colloquialisms: mincemeat, fish to fry, cup of tea.. I can't imagine Russians in the country side talking like this. In the Seagull, among his many Anglicizations:

Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin as Peter Sorin
Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplyov as Constantine Treplev
Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya as Nina Zerechny
Yevgeny Dorn as Eugene Dorn
Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko as Simon Medvedenko

Look for another translation instead. This one makes everyone sound like stuffy old Brits (because Hingley himself is British), especially with the copious usage of "old boy" as a diminutive and phrasing like "he's a funny chap".

Although I only bought this edition because I needed for a class and the School bookstore was sold out, why not write a review? After all, Amazon.com asked me to...

Since I only read the "Cherry Orchard", I'll focus on that. The play concerns an old aristocratic family who is facing the foreclosure of their ancenstrl estate. Their solution? Wait for something random to occur. Neither the matriarch Mrs. Ranevsky or her brother Gayev have any inclination to lift a finger to save the estate, much to the chagrin of Lopahkin and Trofimov, who continually offer advice. It's a quick play, and actually quite funny (according to my professor, Chekov only saw one production of the "Cherry Orchard" and complained it was too dark, that it should be more comedic).

So if you're stuck for something to read this summer and decide you don't have anything to prove in the literary world (unlike me who has decided to read the unabridged version of "Les Miserables)...why not read a Chekov play?

Anton Chekhov was a writer who was able to capture the essence of life and inter-personal relationships in his stories. His writing is simple yet powerful and emotionally affecting. Uncle Vanya deals with envy, male-female relationships, despair, and takes a look at life from a realist perspective.

I read Uncle Vanya for an English class at my school and I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. Chekhov is able to capture life and the daily struggle of living in a single stroke. Chekhov explores male and female love relationships, self-realization, opposite sex attraction and more. Chekhov's writing in these five plays focus mainly on dialogue and the interactions that take place between his life-like characters. Anton Chekhov has the rare ability to articulate through his story telling the essence of human existence.

Plays in general have a tendency to be overly-dramatic. Thus the name "drama". Chekhov definitely used this drama aspect to enhance his plays. He succeeded with some, making them dramatic, awe-inspiring, and amazing. Others? Less so.

I enjoyed reading all of these plays, and I won't deny that. Some, however, are harder to read and to understand than others. It's especially difficult to remember what character is which in each play, especially since in Ivanov, all the names are long and complex. While good plays themselves, I constantly had to flip back to the character list just to remember who that is, a problem rarely found in other plays, such as Ibsen's works.

The plays themselves are good. Each one has its own charm and interest. They're a pleasant read, but a difficult one. It's not something you can just breeze through. Reading these plays needs time and effort, which may be too much for some. If you're looking for any old Chekhov, settle for his stories, like "Ward number six", or even his short little stories. If you're looking for plays (not Shakespeare, that is), go for Ibsen. If you think you can handle this, take it on, but be warned that this is not an easy read.

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

The play, The Sea Gull, by Anton Chekhov, though short, contains all of the dramatic aspects of a long novel. The fact that many substantial events occur within the short length of this play make The Sea Gull a play that is constantly moving along, and therefore reads very quickly. Because The Sea Gull is so full of dramatic events, however, it is also somewhat confusing when dealing with passing time, and keeping track of when certain events happen. In this play, Treplev is in love with a young woman named Nina who falls in love with a writer, Trigorin, whom his mother, Arkadina, seems to pay more attention to than her own son, making Treplev lose the love of two women in his life to the same man. After Nina leaves Treplev, he gets extremely depressed and when she returns after much time only to leave once more, Treplev commits suicide, ending the play. The events of this play are very sad for Treplev and somewhat depressing to read about. However, because this play does not contain long, dragged-out explanations and descriptions of events and people, making it extremely easy to read, on top of being very well written, I would recommend this play to anyone looking for a fast moving, interesting story.