San Antonio College Library

"This new translation presents the only truly complete edition of the plays of one of the greatest dramatists in history. This volume contains works that have never previously been translated, including the newly discovered farce The Power of Hypnotism and the first version of Ivanov, as well as Chekhov's early humorous dialogues. It also contains a description of lost plays and those Chekhov intended to write but never did." --

The play focuses on the lives of three sisters, Olga, Masha, Irina, young women of the Russian gentry who try to fill their days in order to construct a life that feels meaningful while surrounded by an array of military men, servants, husbands, suitors, andd lovers, all of whom constitute a distraction from the passage of time and from the sister's desire to return to their beloved Moscow.

Jarrell's translation clearly exhibits the sensitivity and poignancy of Chekhov's play which traces the intricate relationships between the sisters and the supporting characters.

Set in an unspecified country, the main character, Waltz, supposedly invents a weapon of mass destruction. In the end, this invention turns out to be a mental fantasy of Waltz and the character is institutionalized.