Arkadina is a celebrated actress whose larger-than-life presence dominates both the stage and her personal relationships. Arriving at her family's country estate for the weekend, she finds herself caught in a storm of conflicting desires. Her playwright son, Konstantin, struggles to step out of her shadow as he pursues his own artistic ambitions and her lover Trigorin becomes the object of affection for the aspiring young actress Nina. As their lives entwine and they each grapple with their desires, ambitions, and disappointments, Chekhov's timeless story unfolds in a gripping tale of...

This volume presents the first comprehensive annotated edition of Chekhov's earliest stories in English.  Translated as part of a unique project involving 85 volunteers from 9 countries, the 58 stories were all written between 1880 and 1882, when Chekhov was in his early twenties, and still at medical school. They make up volume 1 of the 10 volumes of short stories in the authoritative thirty-volume Academy of Sciences edition of Chekhov’s Complete Collected Works, and have been arranged in chronological order.  Ranging from comic tales, hilarious skits, literary parodies, outrageous...