Translations of Chekhov's work have been reviewed before in these pages. The concern now, as then, is the ease with which a particular translation can be voiced by the actor. Director, writer, and translator Curt Columbus's work for the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago is notable for its ability to bring Chekhov across the footlights to an audience out for the evening; Senelick (drama & oratory, Tufts Univ.) offers something of a different order entirely. His introductions to and annotations of the plays are of immense scholarly interest and will be important to both Russian and theater departments. Senelick's accomplishment is astounding, and he has done some amazing detective work in assembling variants of the plays, untranslated work (e.g., the newly discovered "The Power of Hypnosis"), and dialog pieces that Chekhov wrote for comic journals in the 1880s. Audiences would probably rather hear Columbus's more colloquial version, while Senelick's high-toned, even elegant dialog might work best for scholars or for reading aloud at home. Strongly recommended for academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/05.]-Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Moorhead (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This volume contains new translations of all of Chekhov's plays from The Cherry Orchard, a well-known favorite among Anglophiles, to Ivanov, an early drama that appears here in English for the first time. Writing in a characteristically engaging style, Senelick (drama and oratory, Tufts Univ.) notes that the volume is not only for Slavists (although the liberal commentaries linking the translations with their Russian original will be insightful to that audience). A brief biography of Chekhov, a chronology, and an introduction contextualize the playwright and will interest both specialists and general readers. Each play (as opposed to the shorter dialogs or parodies) is introduced and many appear with variants. An appendix provides lost and unwritten plays. A number of helpful features will aid those unfamiliar with Russian: an explanation of the problems involved in translating Chekhov, a transliteration chart, and a glossary of stresses for character names (these would have been more helpful had they been placed throughout). This book was a labor of love for Senelick, whose translations are vibrant and unconventional, as befits the rich and iconoclastic nature of these plays. Summing Up: Essential. All readers; all levels. B. M. Sutcliffe Miami University