Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Tr plev.

IT was said that a new person had appeared on the sea-front: a lady with a little dog. Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, who had by then been a fortnight at Yalta, and so was fairly at home there, had begun to take an interest in new arrivals. Sitting in Verney's pavilion, he saw, walking on the sea-front, a fair-haired young lady of medium height, wearing a b ret; a white Pomeranian dog was running behind her.

This volume contains translations of Chekhov's very earliest published short stories. The Chekhov represented here is by no means the confident, near-perfect craftsman who produced some of humanity's best short stories and plays. The artist presented here is a young man willing to experiment but searching for his style and voice. In a way, it can serve as inspiration for any aspiring writer that even the best are not born great, but rather achieve greatness through a relentless dedication to their craft. This book contains the Russian originals facing a new, modern English translation.

The Cherry Orchard is the story of a mortgage, with the grounds and beautiful trees of the proud landowners going for sale at a public auction to pay off their debts to the boorish son of a peasant who has risen in the world. Mme Ranyevskayas family departs to take up their lives anew, leaving the old and forgotten Firs to die alone as the woodsmens axes thud ironically against the cherished trees.