Chekhov Plays

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 4

Chekhov Plays

Ivanov. The Seagull Three Sister*. By Anton Chekhov. Oxford University Frees. IM pp. The three play* in this very superior little paperback are taken from Volume* I and II of “Th* Oxford Chekhov," a newly-translated collection of Chekhov’s play* and short stories by Dr Ronald Kingley. We are given here merely the text of the three plays—the tragic “Ivanov” and the two comedies "Throe Sisters” and “The Seagull,” but one feels an introduction to each play would nave been helpful, especially a* the publishers note that Dr Hingley’s fuller vehnne* contain “an introduction, bibliography, and appendixes giving the early history of th* play* and their composition, with notes on allusion* in the text* and on Russian pronunciation.” The remedy is obvious. We feel, a* we are undoubtedly meant to, a strong urge to track down and read all of “The Oxford Chekhov.”

However, this little foretaste give* us a rounded view of the great dramatist’s talents, with characters so real and three-dimensional that the plays seem to be glimpsed fragments of reality, accidentally observed incidents in real lives, and after our meeting with them, the Natashas and Constantines will continue to live their doomed lives in decaying dachas and mortgaged farmhouses.