The Complete Plays

This edition of Chekhov is a triumph. The big 4 plays--Cherry Orchard, Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and Three Sisters--are all there, of course, and are translated extremely well. However, you can get these plays in tons of other editions with perfectly good translations. The real strength of this edition is the compilation of Chekhov's minor plays, especially the hilarious one-act farces, captioned as "Humorous Dialogues and Parodies." These comedies-in-a-capsule are laugh-out-loud funny and exhibit the comic side of Chekhov that appears every so often in his short stories but always leaves one wanting more. I went through all of them in a single sitting and laughed my ass off. If you want to see the funny Chekhov in full form, get this edition.This edition also contains unfinished, early, untitled, and minor plays. Most of these probably aren't worth a ton of time for the non-academic, but it's nice to know they're there. That being said, if you are a Chekhov buff, or want to be a Chekhov buff, or are studying him for a class, these make this edition the only one to buy.

You all know the plays or you wouldn't be here. What you might not know is the wealth of notes to the text that this edition provides along with very hand (and teachable) critical materials. As a teacher of Chekhov, this edition is a quantum leap among the many other available editions.

I love the writing of Anton Chekhov.

In the case of Chekhov, even some of the short, minor plays are characteristic and of interest. Some are screamingly funny ("Evils of Tobacco.") Of course, one cannot gauge the translation without knowing Russian, but critical notes suggest seriousness on the tranlator's part, and these translations read well. Joseph Smith

There's a whole section in the book where the pages are a couple inches shorter than the rest, as if they were attached to the binder too low and then had the bottoms chopped off, and so are missing a bunch of text.

I had to get this boook for an acting class because the professor (who is Russian) wanted to use a translation other than the more well known Paul Schmidt complete works.While I like Paul's for a very American translation accessible more to American Actors and audiences, there is admitedly something Russian in spirit about Laurence Senelick's translation. I beleive that translations should really be called adaptations because they are merely another, less exact form of the original. Especially when it comes to language and character, and not merely a plot driven play (e.g. Ibsen) Senelick's translation offer a sense that is less American and probably closer to the russian. The only thing that bothers me and it has taken me some time to be somewhat ok with is that I feel like it reads like a translation and I tend to like more seamless adaptation if I'm going to call it that, which takes authorial intention (to the best of their opinion of what authorial intent is) to create their version of the original version. From a performative aspect I am still not sure how much I like it in the mouths of American tongues, but I see the merit in language that requires and american actor to really invest in a a foriegn thought process and construction.Other pluses: Variants to every play chekhov wrote, including what can only be described in this day and age as the special features section with deleted scenes. Great look and style to the book overall, if you like that kind of thing, but it will feel like a bible you are carrying around. Paul Schmidt's is nice because it looks and carries like a normal book, but has virtually every play Chekhov wrote.

one of the greatest of playwrights he is a must of course..i just have enjoyed him forever it seems and lost my copy so i wanted to reread his plays again boy how wonderful.

my definite favorite collection

This is an excellent publication. It is good to have the detailed notes within it and the never previously translated works included.

Fantastic translation of all of the Chekhov plays.

Excellent!