The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (Illustrated)
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Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Chekhov includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.
eBook features:* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Three Sisters’
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Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov was born in 1860 in Southern Russia and moved to Moscow to study medicine. Whilst at university he sold short stories and sketches to magazines to raise money to support his family. His success and acclaim grew as both a writer of fiction and of plays whilst he continued to practice medicine. Ill health forced him to move from his country estate near Moscow to Yalta where he wrote some of his most famous work, and it was there that he married actress Olga Knipper. He died from tuberculosis in 1904.
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The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (Illustrated) - Anton Chekhov
The Complete Works of
ANTON CHEKHOV
VOLUME 13 OF 24
The Three Sisters
Parts Edition
By Delphi Classics, 2014
Version 6
COPYRIGHT
‘The Three Sisters’
Anton Chekhov: Parts Edition (in 24 parts)
First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.
© Delphi Classics, 2017.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.
ISBN: 978 1 78656 954 7
Delphi Classics
is an imprint of
Delphi Publishing Ltd
Hastings, East Sussex
United Kingdom
Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com
www.delphiclassics.com
Anton Chekhov: Parts Edition
This eBook is Part 13 of the Delphi Classics edition of Anton Chekhov in 24 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Three Sisters from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Anton Chekhov, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.
Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Anton Chekhov or the Complete Works of Anton Chekhov in a single eBook.
Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.
ANTON CHEKHOV
IN 24 VOLUMES
Parts Edition Contents
The Plays
1, Platonov
2, On the High Road
3, On the Harmfulness of Tobacco
4, Swansong
5, Ivanoff
6, The Bear
7, The Proposal
8, A Reluctant Hero
9, The Wedding
10, The Wood Demon
11, The Anniversary
12, Uncle Vanya
13, The Three Sisters
14, The Cherry Orchard
The Novel
15, The Shooting Party
The Short Stories
16, The Complete Short Stories
The Novellas
17, The Steppe
18, The Duel
19, An Anonymous Story
20, Three Years
21, My Life
The Non-Fiction
22, Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends
23, Note-Book of Anton Chekhov
The Biography
24, Biographical Sketch of Anton Chekhov by Constance Garnett
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The Three Sisters
Believed to be partly inspired by the lives of the three Brontë sisters, this four act drama was written in 1900. The Three Sisters is a naturalistic play about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world. The drama describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family, namely the three sisters (Olga, Masha, and Irina) and their brother Andrei. They are a family dissatisfied and frustrated with their present existence. The sisters are refined and cultured young women, who grew up in fashionable Moscow; however for the past eleven years they have been living in a provincial town. Throughout the play, Moscow is seen as a major symbolic element, as the sisters are always dreaming of it and constantly express their desire to return. They identify Moscow with their happiness, and thus to them it represents the perfect life. However, as the play develops Moscow escapes them further and the sisters see their dreams disappear; meaning never presents itself and ultimately they are forced to seek it out for themselves.
The Three Sisters was written for the Moscow Arts Theatre and opened on 31 January 1901, under the direction of Constantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Stanislavsky acted Vershinin and the sisters were Olga Knipper (for whom Chekhov wrote the part of Masha), Margarita Savetskaya as Olga and Maria Andreyeva Irina. Maria Lilina (Stanislavsky’s wife) was Natasha, Vsevolod Meyerhold appeared as Tusenbach, Leonid Leonidov was Solyony and Alexander Artem Chebutykin. The critical reception was mixed and Chekhov felt that Stanislavsky’s ‘exuberant’ direction had masked the subtleties of the work, believing that only Knipper had shown her character developing in the manner he had intended. Nevertheless, the play proved popular with audiences and soon became established in the company’s repertoire.
Chekhov, close to the time of the play’s first performance
CONTENTS
CHARACTERS
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
Cover of first edition, published 1901 by Adolf Marks
CHARACTERS
ANDREY SERGEYEVITCH PROSOROV
NATALIA IVANOVA (NATASHA), his fiancée, later his wife (28)
His sisters:
OLGA
MASHA
IRINA
FEODOR ILITCH KULIGIN, high school teacher, married to MASHA (20)
ALEXANDER IGNATEYEVITCH VERSHININ, lieutenant-colonel in charge of
a battery (42)
NICOLAI LVOVITCH TUZENBACH, baron, lieutenant in the army (30)
VASSILI VASSILEVITCH SOLENI, captain
IVAN ROMANOVITCH CHEBUTIKIN, army doctor (60)
ALEXEY PETROVITCH FEDOTIK, sub-lieutenant
VLADIMIR CARLOVITCH RODE, sub-lieutenant
FERAPONT, door-keeper at local council offices, an old man
ANFISA, nurse (80)
The action takes place in a provincial town.
[Ages are stated in brackets.]
ACT I
[In PROSOROV’S house. A sitting-room with pillars; behind is seen a large dining-room. It is midday, the sun is shining brightly outside. In the dining-room the table is being laid for lunch.]
[OLGA, in the regulation blue dress of a teacher at a girl’s high school, is walking about correcting exercise books; MASHA, in a black dress, with a hat on her knees, sits and reads a book; IRINA, in white, stands about, with a thoughtful expression.]
OLGA. It’s just a year since father died last May the fifth, on your name-day, Irina. It was very cold then, and snowing. I thought I would never survive it, and you were in a dead faint. And now a year has gone by and we are already thinking about it without pain, and you are wearing a white dress and your face is happy. [Clock strikes twelve] And the clock struck just the same way then. [Pause] I remember that there was music at the funeral, and they fired a volley in the cemetery. He was a general in command of a brigade but there were few people present. Of course, it was raining then, raining hard, and snowing.
IRINA. Why think about it!
[BARON TUZENBACH, CHEBUTIKIN and SOLENI appear by the table in the dining-room, behind the pillars.]
OLGA. It’s so warm to-day that we can keep the windows open, though the birches are not yet in flower. Father was put in command of a brigade, and he rode out of Moscow with us eleven years ago. I remember perfectly that it was early in May and that everything in Moscow was flowering then. It was warm too, everything was bathed in sunshine. Eleven years have gone, and I remember everything as if we rode out only yesterday. Oh, God! When