Ten plays

Anton Chekhov is remembered above all for his plays, which reshaped modern drama by focusing on ordinary people, quiet disappointments and the gap between what characters hope for and what life gives them. This volume gathers a selection of his stage works, a title that points to ten plays, and the set is built around the dramas for which he is best known, such as The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

Alongside these longer pieces, the collection is a useful introduction to Chekhov's shorter comic one-act farces, which are sharp and playful studies of rivalry, pride and marriage. Readers who come to the book for its theatre history will find that his plays rely on subtext and mood as much as on plot, which is why they continue to be staged around the world.