Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

So, what happens in Uncle Vanya? Not much; just life, played out over four acts. There are rich people, and there are people who work for the rich people, whom the rich people don't really care about. There is a gun fired in anger and desperation, but there aren't any bodies to carry off stage. There are men making fools of themselves over women. There are those who accept their fates and wait for their rewards in heaven, and there are others who...

Classic comedy-drama depicting man's propensity for destroying those he is close to. The main protagonists are Trepleff, the youthful aspiring writer who dreams of bringing new forms to the theatre and Irina Arkadina, Trepleff's self-centered mother, an accomplished actress, who derides her son's ambitions.

Meet Olga, Masha, and Irina, warm and cultured young sisters who were reared in the exciting hubbub of Moscow, but have been living in the dull, gossipy backwaters of Russia for far too long. With their father's passing, and the ordinary grip of day-to-day life slowly suffocating them, the urge to return to the city with its rich and exciting life rises to a fever pitch.

In this collection of twenty tales, Richard Ford, a master short story writer in his own right, has selected his personal favorites from among more than two hundred of Chekhov's tales and short novels. These stories, ordered chronologically from 1886 to 1899, are drawn from Chekhov's most fruitful years as a short story writer. The translation is by Constance Garnett, who brought Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Turgenev to the English-speaking world.

Presents eight plays by Anton Chekhov.