Plays: Ivanov; The Seagull; Uncle Vanya; Three Sisters; The Cherryorchard (Penguin Classics)

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On the Amur steamer going to Sakhalin, there was a convict who had murdered his wife and wore fetters on his legs. Enter from a dressing room Svetlovidov, costumed as Calchas from Offenbach's La Belle Helene, with a candle in his hand.

Eventually Chekhov broke with Suvorin over the attitude taken by the paper toward the notorious Alfred Dreyfus affair in France, with Chekhov championing Dreyfus. Today his plays, including Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, and The Cherry Orchard are recognised as masterpieces the world over.The multitude of academic essays gave me a deep appreciation for the plays that I wouldn't have had without them. Reading about "Chekhov's Russia" and the Nabokov essay on a term that is critical to understand if you want to more fully appreciate the works was thoroughly enjoyable as well as informative. Chekhov has also influenced the work of Japanese playwrights including Shimizu Kunio, Yōji Sakate, and Ai Nagai. His book—the most complete, acute, and elegant study of this master playwright ever written—will appeal to all those who care about Chekhov, theater, and the life of the mind.

Letter of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, quoted by Anatoly Smeliansky in "Chekhov at the Moscow Art Theatre", from The Cambridge Companion to Chekhov, 31–32.

The Art Theatre commissioned more plays from Chekhov and the following year staged Uncle Vanya, which Chekhov had completed in 1896. Throughout Chekhov’s plays, any sort of resolution, comic or tragic, is deferred; he often presents courtships that go nowhere, instead of a conventional love plot.