Chekhov's penultimate play has inspired a bewildering variety of interpretations since its premiere at the Moscow Arts Theatre on 31 January 1901. Three Sisters has been viewed both as tragedy and as comedy, as a poignant testimony to the eternal yearning for love, happiness, beauty and meaning, and as a devastating indictment of the folly of inert gentility and vacuous day-dreaming. Its characters have been deemed worthy embodiments of the universal 'human condition', keenly experiencing hope, disappointment, frustration, loneliness and the passage of time - or passive products of...

Uncle Vania is Chekhov's best loved and perhaps his best composed play, yet this is the first book to be solely devoted to it in any language. Donald Rayfield brings his twenty years of research and writing and a century of others' critical studies to focus on Chekhov's art. He offers a close reading and interpretation of the play, paying special attention to the way in which it evolved from its prototype, the rarely performed comedy The Wood Demon.
This study of Chekhov's emergence as a dramatist of genius will be invaluable to students of drama, for here, for the first...

This monograph aims to offer an in-depth critical analysis of Lermontov's novel, in the light of the latest criticism on the work. A review of the critical reception of the novel from publication up to the present day is offered in the introduction, and there is a comprehensive bibliography of secondary sources. This is followed with analysis of the novels' five consistent stories, as well as its introductory apparatus, to produce new critical insights into the text. Particular stress is laid on the role of ethnicity in the novel, taking into account its role in the development of the...