Anton Chekhov, Ivanov

John Reid (University of the West of England)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.1.00: Slavic and Russian Writing and Culture: Old, Medieval and Tsarist, 700-1917.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1887

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Anton Chekhov wrote Ivanov when he was twenty-seven years old and it was his first full-length play to be staged. An earlier play, Platonov, written while he was a student, probably served as a model for the new work, but it had been turned down by the Maly theatre. In 1887-90 he had also had some success, much to his father's delight, with a series of one-act vaudevilles or farces, which drew upon his experience of writing humorous sketches for weekly magazines. Chekhov had brought new life to the traditional one-act “vaudeville” form by giving his comic types deft realistic touches that made them closer to being the “living characters” that he aspired to create in his mature plays. Under pseudonyms like “…

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2942 words

Citation: Reid, John. "Ivanov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4431, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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