One of the foremost dramatists of the 19th century, Russian author Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) created a body of work noted for its realistic dialogue and keen insights into human relationships. This collection of five one-act plays -- in the celebrated Constance Garnett translations -- shows Chekhov at his witty best. The Anniversary takes a lively look behind the frenetic scenes at a bank: a man overburdened with errands from friends and family gives a nearly maddened but ludicrous account of his chores and obligations in An Unwilling Martyr; and The Wedding depicts scenes from a wedding reception in which the mother of the bride assumes affected airs and deals with quarrelsome guests. In The Bear, a virtuous, spirited widow is pressed to repay a debt and ends up receiving an offer of marriage. The Proposal depicts the trauma of a would-be suitor who winds up in a wrangle over property. Theater lovers, students of drama and literature, and other readers, as well as amateur and professional groups performing these popular works, will welcome this convenient, inexpensive collection of comic gems by one of the masters of modern drama.

From high school drama students to community theater actors, performers everywhere are looking for inexpensive material to entertain audiences. This collection of a dozen royalty-free, one-act plays provides the perfect solution. Classic dramas include Aristophanes' The Birds, J. M. Synge's Riders to the Sea, and Eugene O'Neill's The Moon of the Caribbees. Other works include August Strindberg's The Stronger, Susan Glaspell's Trifles, Louise Saunders' The Knave of Hearts, and Oscar Wilde's A Florentine Tragedy, in addition to plays by Moliere, Anton Chekhov, William Butler Yeats, James M. Barrie, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Anton Chekhov was one of Russian literature's greatest short story writers. This collection brings together twenty-five of his best known, including ‘Fat and Thin’, ‘Sleepy’, ‘Rothschild’s Fiddle’, and ’The Lady with a Dog’. An acute observer of everyday life in late 19th-century Russia, Chekhov was a master of wry precision. His clear, subtle prose conjures up a diverse range of characters, whether they be small children arguing over a game, two old school friends meeting by chance, or lovers conducting an illicit affair. By turns tragic, comic, and satirical, each story paints a vivid picture that lives long in the mind.

The most widely staged dramatist after Shakespeare, Chekhov left a deep mark both on the development of Russian literature and world theatre, with plays that were remarkable not just for their dialogue but their atmosphere and the tensions expressed between the lines. Collected in this volume are Chekhov's four most celebrated plays - The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard - in a brand-new translation by Hugh Aplin. In these personal stories of unfulfilled love, failed ambition and existential ennui, set against a background of unsettling social and economical change, the reader can appreciate the groundbreaking qualities of Chekhov's theatrical genius.

Five masterful dramatic works from one of the world's best-loved playwrights, including The Seagull-now a major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan, Elizabeth Moss, and Annette Bening At a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the everyday lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people. Ivanov depicts a man stifled by inactivity and lost idealism, and The Seagull contrasts a young man's selfish romanticism with the stoicism of a woman cruelly abandoned by her lover. With 'the scenes from country life' of Uncle Vanya, his first fully mature play, Chekhov developed his own unique dramatic world, neither tragedy nor comedy. In Three Sisters the Prozorov sisters endlessly dream of going to Moscow to escape the monotony of provincial life, while his comedy The Cherry Orchard portrays characters futilely clinging to the past as their land is sold from underneath them. In this edition Peter Carson's moving translations convey Chekhov's subtle blend of comedy, tragedy and psychological insight, while Richard Gilman's introduction examines how Chekhov broke with theatrical conventions and discusses each play in detail. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Anton Chekhov's popularity in the West is without parallel for a foreign writer. He has been absorbed into our culture, and accepted as one of our own. His plays lend themselves easily to the stage, calling for actors with intelligence and common sense rather than a dramatic voice or histrionic skills. He takes from everyday life themes of frustration which apply to us all - the difficulty of carving out a happy existence, the problems of love, the fading of hope, the universal feeling that time passes and we never quite get things right. This seems pessimistic, and yet Chekhov claimed he was writing comedy. Readers, actors and directors must decide for themselves which way to play these pieces. They are full of sadness, but a sadness described as the 'darkness of the last hour before the dawn'. Whether tragic or comic, however, they are works of the first importance. "The Cherry Orchard" has been described as 'the best play since Shakespeare', "Three Sisters" as 'the best play in the world'.

Newly repackaged, here are the five masterpieces by one of the world's greatest playwrights, in translation by Ann Dunnigan. As Robert Brustein declares in the foreword to this edition: "in the modern theater...there are none who bring the drama to a higher realization of its human role."

Has Mrs Brown killed Granny on the beach? Why does Mrs Hill want to leave her husband? Who wants to steal the Professor’s invention? And what is little Johnny trying to say? Discover the answers when you read the plays in this book. They are plays about ordinary people and the unusual, often funny, things that happen to them.

Anton Chekhov is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories. He constructs stories where action and drama are implied rather than described openly, and which leave much to the reader's imagination. This collection contains some of the most important of his earliest and shortest comic sketches, as well as examples of his great, mature works. Throughout, the doctor-turned-writer displays compassion for human suffering and misfortune, but is always able to see the comical, even farcical aspects of the human condition.

Треклист: 1. Petrushka - Ballet Suite 2. Mavra - Comic Opera in One Act

Треклист: 1. Petrushka - Ballet Suite 2. Mavra - Comic Opera in One Act

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 of Chekhov 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.

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 of Chekhov 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.

Chekhov is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His works often asked many more questions than they answered, and he was one of the first writers to use the stream-of-consciousness technique. Considered the greatest short story writer, Anton Chekhov changed the genre itself with his spare, impressionistic depictions of Russian life and the human condition.

Chekhov is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His works often asked many more questions than they answered, and he was one of the first writers to use the stream-of-consciousness technique. Considered the greatest short story writer, Anton Chekhov changed the genre itself with his spare, impressionistic depictions of Russian life and the human condition.

Chekhov is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His works often asked many more questions than they answered, and he was one of the first writers to use the stream-of-consciousness technique. Considered the greatest short story writer, Anton Chekhov changed the genre itself with his spare, impressionistic depictions of Russian life and the human condition.