Uncle Vanya

By Anton Chekhov

Trapped in the suffocating shadow of his esteemed brother-in-law, Uncle Vanya boils with unspoken resentment and unrequited love. In Chekhov's masterpiece, the idyllic facade of a rural estate crumbles as secrets simmer and simmer. Vanya, his youth wasted nurturing the pro

• Language: English
• Publisher: Left of Brain Books
• Release date: Jan 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9781396324437

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian doctor, short-story writer, and playwright. Born in the port city of Taganrog, Chekhov was the third child of Pavel, a grocer and devout Christian, and Yevgeniya, a natural storyteller. His father, a violent and arrogant man, abused his wife and children and would serve as the inspiration for many of the writer’s most tyrannical and hypocritical characters. Chekhov studied at the Greek School in Taganrog, where he learned Ancient Greek. In 1876, his father’s debts forced the family to relocate to Moscow, where they lived in poverty while Anton remained in Taganrog to settle their finances and finish his studies. During this time, he worked odd jobs while reading extensively and composing his first written works. He joined his family in Moscow in 1879, pursuing a medical degree while writing short stories for entertainment and to support his parents and siblings. In 1876, after finishing his degree and contracting tuberculosis, he began writing for St. Petersburg’s Novoye Vremya, a popular paper which helped him to launch his literary career and gain financial independence. A friend and colleague of Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, and Ivan Bunin, Chekhov is remembered today for his skillful observations of everyday Russian life, his deeply psychological character studies, and his mastery of language and the rhythms of conversation.

Book preview

Uncle Vanya

Scenes from Country Life, In Four Acts

By

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

First published in 1899

Image 1

Published by Left of Brain Books

Copyright © 2023 Left of Brain Books

ISBN 978-1-396-32443-7

eBook Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations permitted by copyright law. Left of Brain Books is a division of Left Of Brain Onboarding Pty Ltd.

PUBLISHER’S PREFACE

About the Book

"Uncle Vanya is a tragicomedy by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov published in 1899. Its first major performance was in 1900 under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski.

Uncle Vanya is unique among Chekhov's major plays because it is essentially an extensive reworking of a play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. By elucidating the specific revisions Chekhov made during the revision process, including reducing the cast-list from almost two-dozen down to a lean nine, changing the climactic suicide of the The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic, less final resolution, critics such as Donald Rayfield, Richard Gilman, and Eric Bentley have sought to chart the development of Chekhov's dramaturgical method through the 1890s.

Uncle Vanya was published in 1899, but it is difficult to determine when the work was originally finished, or when the revision process took place. Rayfield cites recent scholarship suggesting Chekhov revisited The Wood Demon during his trip to the island of Sakhalin, a prison colony in Eastern Russia, in 1891."

(Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (January 29 1860 - July 15 1904) was a Russian short-story writer and playwright. His playwriting career produced four classics, while his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practiced as a doctor throughout most of his literary career: Medicine is my lawful wife, he once said, and literature is my mistress".

Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896; but the play was revived to acclaim by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subse-quently also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Chek-hov’s last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

These four works present a special challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conven-tional action Chekhov offers a theatre of mood and a

submerged life in the text. Not everyone appreciated that challenge: Leo Tolstoy reportedly told Chekhov, You know, I cannot abide Shakespeare, but your plays are even worse.

(Quote from wikipedia.org)

CONTENTS

PUBLISHER’S PREFACE

ACT I. ............................................................................................ 1

ACT II. ......................................................................................... 16

ACT III. ........................................................................................ 36

ACT IV. ........................................................................................ 56

ACT I.

A country house on a terrace. In front of it a garden. In an avenue of trees, under an old poplar, stands a table set for tea, with a samovar, etc. Some benches and chairs stand near the table. On one of them is lying a guitar. A hammock is swung near the table. It is three o'clock in the afternoon of a cloudy day.

MARINA

a quiet, grey-haired, little old woman, is sitting at the table knitting a stocking.

ASTROFF

is walking up and down near her.

MARINA.

[Pouring some tea into a glass] Take a little tea, my son.

ASTROFF.

[Takes the glass from her unwillingly] Somehow, I don't seem to want any.

MARINA.

Then will you have a little vodka instead?

ASTROFF.

No, I don't drink vodka every day, and besides, it is too hot now. [A pause] Tell me, nurse, how lo ng have we known each other?

MARINA.

[Thoughtfully] Let me see, how long is it? Lord--help me to remember. You first came here, into our parts--let me think-

-when was it? Sonia's mother was still alive--it was two winters before she died; that was eleven years ago--

[thoughtfully] perhaps more.

ASTROFF.

Have I changed much since then?

MARINA.

Oh, yes. You were handsome and young then, and now you are an old man and not handsome any more. You drink, too.

ASTROFF.

Yes, ten years have made me another man. And why? Because I am overworked. Nurse, I am on my feet from dawn till dusk. I know no rest; at night I tremble under my blan-kets for fear of being dragged out to visit some one who is sick; I have toiled without repose or a day's freedom since I have known you; could I help growing old? And then, existence is tedious, anyway; it is a senseless, dirty business, this life, and goes heavily. Every one about here is silly, and after living with them for two or three years one grows silly oneself. It is inevitable. [Twisting his moustache] See what a long