One of a generation on the brink of a tremendous social upheaval, Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904), despite his flashes of humor, paints in his plays and essentially tragic picture of Russian society. The plays in this volume - Ivanov, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Uncle Vania, and Three sisters, together with three one-act 'jests' - all display Chekhov's overwhelming sense of the tedium and futility of every day life. yet his representation of human relationships is infinitely sympathetic, and each play contains at least one character who expresses Chekhov's hipe for a brighter future.
