Reading Chekhov's Plays in Russian: Uncle Vanya / The Cherry Orchard: A Parallel-Text Russian Reader

by Mark R. Pettus

In a format designed to help students of Russian begin enjoying real Russian literature in the original, this volume includes two of Anton Chekhov’s timeless masterpieces of the Russian “Uncle Vanya” (the tale of an epic existential meltdown on a country estate) and “The Cherry Orchard” (a saga of family trauma and dysfunction, set against a near-apocalyptic backdrop of radical social change). The complete text of both plays is presented in the original Russian, with a facing English translation, together with all the vocabulary notes and reference tables you need to enjoy Chekhov in Russian. Touching on a range of themes and emotions — from regret and resentment, to hope, love, and mercy, to uncannily prescient fears of climate change — these plays are funny, profound, and moving, and bear witness on every page to the objectivity and compassion that Chekhov strove to cultivate as an observer of human experience.

Designed to help students of Russian begin to enjoy real Russian literature in the original without constantly reaching for a dictionary, this parallel-text edition features a new translation made specifically for this purpose, as well as detailed Russian vocabulary notes, including all the important forms you need (especially aspectual pairs and conjugation types for all verbs). The original Russian text is marked for stress, but is otherwise unedited and unsimplified.

303 pages, Paperback

Published December 28, 2021