First rate drama
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For anyone who doesn't know Chekhov, I recommend you get acquainted with his work immediately. His short stories are superb, and his five plays are masterpieces of theatre. It is such a shame that he died when he was only 44 - like Mozart, you really wonder what on earth he would have produced by the time he was 60.
As always with Chekhov, I am amazed at the fact he is able to create tension and high drama from absolutely nothing - boredom, loss of zest for life, inability to move on, hopeless incompetence, arrogance, etc etc. Characters are absolutely pared down to the minimum necessary to dissect a psychological state, atmosphere, general state of affairs etc., and the language is an exercise in economy - it functions only as a vehicle for creating dramatic effect. If the penguin translation is faithful, then there is little, if any, superfluous imagery, and nothing that digresses from the function of each moment of dramatic intensity.
The tone and themes of each play - as with his short stories - are always ambiguous: bittersweet, tragicomic, sad and joyful, generosity and miserliness, adultery vs sterile faithfulness etc. In this lack of commitment to a stable reality Chekhov was well ahead of his time and it is easy to see how his plays have exerted such an influence on the development of the modern play.
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five by Chekhov
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I re-read Chekhov - the stories as well as these plays - regularly. These recent translations are as good as, if not better, than any I`ve read, even the superb, natural-sounding ones by Frayn. This book benefits too from a masterly, uncompromising and authoritative introduction by Carson.
I find new things in The Seagull, Three Sisters, etc every time
I renew my acquaintance with them. The Seagull is a limpid, sad comedy with - as one could say of all Chekhov - a deceptively tough core. Uncle Vanya (his `easiest` play to approach at first?) is one to fall in love with; Three Sisters is a world masterpiece...oh, I could go on about this amazing man. He was a great influence on the precise, humane Raymond Carver, which I think is a testament to both writers.
I believe Chekhov to be perhaps the most important writer since Shakespeare. Like the latter, he invariably keeps himself, and his writer`s ego, out of his writing - unlike, say, Shaw.
Nothing can beat seeing a good, un-reverent performance of these aching-to-be-acted plays, but this is a fine collection to add to one`s library.
Incidentally, I am tired now of finding reviews on Amazon which are talking about books other than the one under review. My predecessor here is reviewing the Frayn versions. Why does this keep happening, usually with translated literature? Get with it!
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Perhaps the best English translation of Chekov to date.
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Michael Frayn's translastion of Checkov is lively, well presented, and holds on to the comic element of his characters - often lost in the stuffy attitude of the cannon of literature. Uncle Vanya, in this edition is especially good. As you read through the lines of the housekeeper also think Father Ted's Mrs. Doyle. Chekov created this character long before TV was even a concept. Good stuff. By this edition.
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