Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series — Reading Notes

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Authors: Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904, West, Julius, 1891-1918 [Translator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2005 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Russian drama -- Translations into English; Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 -- Translations into English Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 74,280

Reading time 323 min

Text sections 12

The catalog record for Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series — Reading Notes provides practical reading context through 74,280 words, 5 hr 23 min estimated reading time, and 12 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 11.0 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Russian drama -- Translations into English,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #7986

This second series of Chekhov's plays includes early one-act farces ('The Proposal', 'The Bear') alongside major works 'The Three Sisters' and 'The Cherry Orchard'. The translator's introduction notes the rediscovery of the previously censored 'On the High Road'. Excerpts reveal Chekhov's blend of mundane dialogue and emotional undercurrents.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg7986

Read the Text

e’s the learned member of the family. I expect he will be a professor some day. Father was a soldier, but his son chose an academic career for himself.

MASHA. That was father’s wish.

OLGA. We ragged him to-day. We think he’s a little in love.

IRINA. To a local lady. She will probably come here to-day.

MASHA. You should see the way she dresses! Quite prettily, quite fashionably too, but so badly! Some queer bright yellow skirt with a wretched little fringe and a red bodice. And such a complexion! Andrey isn’t in love. After all he has taste, he’s simply making fun of us. I heard yesterday that she was going to marry Protopopov, the chairman of the Local Council. That would do her nicely.... [At the side door] Andrey, come here! Just for a minute, dear! [Enter ANDREY.]

OLGA. My brother, Andrey Sergeyevitch.

VERSHININ. My name is Vershinin.

ANDREY. Mine is Prosorov. [Wipes his perspiring hands] You’ve come to take charge of the battery?

OLGA. Just think, Alexander Ignateyevitch comes from Moscow.

ANDREY. That’s all right. Now my little sisters won’t give you any rest.

VERSHININ. I’ve already managed to bore your sisters.

IRINA. Just look what a nice little photograph frame Andrey gave me to-day. [Shows it] He made it himself.

VERSHININ. [Looks at the frame and does not know what to say] Yes.... It’s a thing that...

IRINA. And he made that frame there, on the piano as well. [Andrey waves his hand and walks away.]

OLGA. He’s got a degree, and plays the violin, and cuts all sorts of things out of wood, and is really a domestic Admirable Crichton. Don’t go away, Andrey! He’s got into a habit of always going away. Come here!

[MASHA and IRINA take his arms and laughingly lead him back.]

MASHA. Come on, come on!

ANDREY. Please leave me alone.

MASHA. You are funny. Alexander Ignateyevitch used to be called the lovelorn Major, but he never minded.

VERSHININ. Not the least.

MASHA. I’d like to call you the lovelorn fiddler!

IRINA. Or the lovelorn professor!

OLGA. He’s in love! little Andrey is in love!

IRINA. [Applauds] Bravo, Bravo! Encore! Little Andrey is in love.

CHEBUTIKIN. [Goes up behind ANDREY and takes him round the waist with both arms] Nature only brought us into the world that we should love! [Roars with laughter, then sits down and reads a newspaper which he takes out of his pocket.]

ANDREY. That’s enough, quite enough.... [Wipes his face] I couldn’t sleep all night and now I can’t quite find my feet, so to speak. I read until four o’clock, then tried to sleep, but nothing happened. I thought about one thing and another, and then it dawned and the sun crawled into my bedroom. This summer, while I’m here, I want to translate a book from the English....

VERSHININ. Do you read English?

ANDREY. Yes father, rest his soul, educated us almost violently. It may seem funny and silly, but it’s nevertheless true, that after his death I began to fill out and get rounder, as if my body had had some great pressure taken off it. Thanks to father, my sisters and I know French, German, and English, and Irina knows Italian as well. But we paid dearly for it all!

MASHA. A knowledge of three languages is an unnecessary luxury in this town. It isn’t even a luxury but a sort of useless extra, like a sixth finger. We know a lot too much.

Continue Reading →

The second series of Chekhov's plays in English translation brings together early one-act farces and two of his most celebrated full-length works. The volume opens with a translator's introduction that traces the rediscovery of 'On the High Road', a play suppressed by the censor in 1885 under the comment 'a depressing and dirty piece'. This collection thus offers a view of Chekhov's range, from the broad comedy of 'The Proposal' and 'The Bear' to the layered melancholy of 'The Three Sisters' and 'The Cherry Orchard'. The excerpts show a playwright attentive to the rhythms of everyday speech, where characters reveal their inner lives through seemingly trivial remarks.

Censorship and Rediscovery

The translator's introduction reveals that 'On the High Road', written in 1884 under the pseudonym 'A. Chekhonte', was rejected by the censor Kaiser von Kugelgen, who scrawled 'a depressing and dirty piece—cannot be licensed'. The play remained unpublished until a copy was found in the Censor's office after Chekhov's death. This backstory highlights the constraints under which Chekhov worked and the precarious fate of his early dramatic efforts. The inclusion of this play in the volume gives readers access to a work that was effectively suppressed for decades.

Domestic Tension in 'The Three Sisters'

In the excerpt from Act I of 'The Three Sisters', a birthday celebration is punctuated by small anxieties and superstitions. Kuligin notes 'There are thirteen at table!' and later jokes about lovers being present. Natasha, uncomfortable with the attention, flees the table, and Andrey follows to reassure her. Their private kiss is interrupted by two officers. The scene captures Chekhov's method: public festivity undercut by private unease, and characters speaking in fragments—Masha repeats a line from Pushkin tearfully, unable to explain why. The dialogue feels natural, almost aimless, yet it builds a sense of impending change.

Everyday Fears in Act II

Act II of 'The Three Sisters' opens with Natasha checking for fires, worried about a candle left burning. She frets over her child Bobby's temperature and insists on a diet. Andrey tries to calm her, but her anxieties persist. The scene is set at 8 p.m., with no fire lit, and the sisters still at work. Chekhov uses domestic details—a concertina playing outside, a candle, a child's chill—to create a mood of restless waiting. Natasha's preoccupation with household order contrasts with the sisters' absence, hinting at shifting power dynamics within the family.

Readers approaching this collection will find a playwright who builds drama from the ordinary: a forgotten candle, a superstition about thirteen guests, a humming-top given as a gift. The early farces offer a more overtly comic Chekhov, while the longer plays reward attention to repeated motifs and offhand remarks. The translator's introduction provides useful context, particularly for the rediscovered 'On the High Road'. Let the characters' hesitations and interruptions guide your reading.

There’s something touching about how Chekhov’s early farces hide their ache behind laughter—much like the games the March sisters staged, where joy and longing shared the same small stage. I keep thinking of that old Comic Tragedies volume, those handwritten plays, and how both collections feel like letters from people who knew life’s tenderness was always slipping away. Comic Tragedies Written by 'Jo' and 'Meg' and Acted by The 'Little Women' — A Closer Reading sits beside my Chekhov now, worn in the same way.