Page:Anton Chekhov - The Boor - Tr. Hilmar Baukhage (1915).djvu/9



Anton Tchekoff is one of the masters of contemporary Russian literature. His plays—"The Seagull" and "The Cherry Orchard" are the best known—are considered classics in Russia, while his stories of Russian life are famous for their style and their insight into peasant life and the peasant mind. His longer plays lack what we should call action, but their characterization, their subtle picturing of society, and their "atmosphere," entitle them to a position of high eminence.

Tchekoff wrote some five or six short plays, two of them uproarious farces; among these are "The Boor" and "A Marriage Proposal." Here he shows the lighter side of Russian country life, infusing some of the spirit of the great Gogol into his broad character-portrayals. In these plays he appears to be asking his audience to cast off restraint and laugh with him at the stupidity and naïveté, as well as good-heartedness, of the people he knew so well.

A simple interior—plastered white, with cross-beams, if possible—is all that is required as to setting.