Five masterful dramatic works from one of the world's best-loved playwrights, An
ton Chekhov's "Plays" is translated with notes by Peter Carson, and an introduct
ion by Richard Gilman in "Penguin Classics". 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 Seagul
l" contrasts a young man's selfish romanticism with the stoicism of a woman crue
lly abandoned by her lover.
