Our Notes & References

The first collection of Chekhov’s plays, and the first book edition of Uncle Vanya and The Seagull.

It includes seven plays: Medved (The Bear), Predlozhenie (A Marriage Proposal), Ivanov, Lebedinaya pesnya (Kalkhas) (Swan Song), Tragik ponevole (A Tragedian in Spite of Himself), Chayka (The Seagull), Dyadya Vanya (Uncle Vanya). Five of them (except A Tragedian in Spite of Himself and Ivanov) were published here for the first time in a book: before that, they were published as lithographic pamphlets or in periodicals.

Chekhov meticulously edited all of his plays specifically for this edition, partly because of the pressure from the censors: the first version of The Seagull was forbidden for staging in amateur theatres. The Seagull‘s first performance in 1896 turned out to be a complete disaster, after which Chekhov swore never to write plays again. Encouraged by the publisher Suvorin, he re-wrote several of his plays, including Leshii (The Wood Demon, 1889), which became the future triumph Uncle Vanya.

On 2 December 1896, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin, ‘The press is sending me proofs at an astonishingly slow speed. They still need to put together the proofs of Chayka, the play you know, and of Dyadya Vanya, the play yet unknown to the world.’

“Uncle Vanya and The Seagull are a new kind of dramatic art in which realism rises to a spiritualized and deeply thought out symbol” (Maxim Gorky in his letter to Chekhov, December 1898)

“Uncle Vanya is Chekhov’s best play. Yet, it still remains largely misunderstood” (Russian theatre director Mark Rozovsky in his book Chtenie “Diadi Vani”, New York: Slovo, 1996, p.15).

Provenance

‘V.G.’ (initials at foot of spine); Mikhail Krasnov (European private collector of important Russian literature; acquired from Bernard Quaritch Ltd.).

Bibliography

Kilgour 235; Gorky’s letters to Chekhov http://chehov-lit.ru/chehov/letters/1897-1898/letter-2507.htm.