Uncle vanya, paperback/anton chekhov

A masterpiece of Russian drama, now in a student editionAlong with Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya is credited as one of Chekhovs masterpieces and a significant precursor of modern drama.

Set on a country estate in late nineteenth century Russia, Uncle Vanya is in part a study of the enervation of Russian middle-class provincial life.

The major dynamics between the characters themselves are centred on two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere and a flirtation that brings disaster.

Mixing the tragic and the absurd and dealing with a form that allows for ambiguity and contradiction, Uncle Vanya has been deemed the first modernist play.

(David Lan)It is the element of might-have-been in Chekhovs characters that makes their sense of waste so tragic ? I know of no more moving climax in world drama.

GuardianDefinitive translation by acclaimed playwright Michael FraynMethuen Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays.

Contains the complete text of the play, the volume contains a chronology of the playwrights life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of various interpretations; and notes on individual words and phrases in the text.