Anton Chekhov

This carefully crafted ebook: Greatest Works of Anton Chekhov is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Excerpt:In each one of us there are too many springs, too many wheels and cogs for us to judge each other by first impressions or by two or three external indications. Ivanoff, Act 3 (1887)Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. Chekhov practised as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.Contents:Novel: The Shooting PartyPlays:On the High Road Swan SongIvanoff The AnniversaryThe Proposal The Wedding The Bear The Seagull A Reluctant HeroUncle Vanya The Three Sisters The Cherry Orchard Short Stories: The Safety MatchThe Boys GrishaA Trifle from Real LifeThe Cooks WeddingShrove TuesdayIn Passion WeekAn IncidentA Matter of ClassicsThe TutorOut of SortsA JokeAfter the TheatreVolodiaA Naughty BoyBlissTwo Beautiful GirlsThe Chorus GirlThe Father of a FamilyThe OratorIonitchAt Christmas TimeIn the Coach HouseLady Ns StoryA Journey By CartThe Privy CouncillorRothschilds FiddleA Horsey NameThe PechenegThe BishopThe SlandererThe KissVerotchkaOn TrialThe Mass for the DeadThe Privy CouncillorThe RunawayThe ReedLa CigaleThe Head Gardeners TaleOystersWomenWoeZinotchkaThe PrincessThe MuzhiksThe Darling

OXFORD WORLD S CLASSICS: EARLY STORIES

At the start of his twenties, when he was still in medical school, Anton Chekhov was also busily setting himself up as a prolific and popular writer. Appearing in a wide range of periodicals, his shrewd, stinging, funny stories and sketches turned a mocking eye on the mating rituals and money-grubbing habits of the middle classes, the pretensions of aspiring artists and writers, bureaucratic corruption, drunken clowning, provincial ignorance, petty crueltyon Russian life, in short. Chekhov was already developing his distinctive ear for spoken language, its opacities and evasions, the cliches we shelter behind and the cliches that betray us. The lively stories in The Prank feature both the themes and the characteristic tone that make Chekhov among the most influential and beloved of modern writers.

Incisive, masterfully written tales -- set in Tsarist Russian milieux -- reveal noted author's skills in character, nuance, and setting development. Includes "The Black Monk" (1894), "The House with the Mezzanine" (1896), "The Peasants" (1897), "Gooseberries" (1898), and "The Lady with the Toy Dog" (1899).

This edition presents the sixteen tales of the original collection ranging from well-known and acknowledged gems such as Agafya and on the road to others which will be fresh even to many seasoned readers of Chekhov in a brand-new translation by Hugh Aplin.

  SAKHALIN ISLAND 

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.

A collection of stories where action and drama are implied rather than described openly and which intend to leave much to the reader s imagination

FIVE PLAYS

On a visit to a provincial town to see his sister Nina who is suffering from cancer, Alexei Laptev, who works for his father's Moscow haberdashery business, falls in love with Yulia, the daughter of her doctor, and proposes to her. Although she does not reciprocate his feelings, she agrees to marry him and live with him in the capital, where the couple's relationship is marred by tensions: Yulia is filled with regrets about her choice and boredom with her new existence, while Alexei is nagged by the suspicion that she married him for his money alone. However, as time passes and misfortune strikes, they both learn to reassess all of their assumptions.Chekhov's second-longest prose work after The Steppe, Three Years is, in the author's own words, "a novel of Moscow life" and an examination of its merchant classes. A powerful story of redemption and the nuances of human relationships, the novella helped cement Chekhov's reputation as a major figure in Russian literature.