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Anton Chekhov. By Rose Whyman. Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists. New York: Routledge, 2011; pp. 190. $105.00 cloth, $32.95 paper.
Rose Whyman's Anton Chekhov is a superb addition to the Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists series, and is an excellent resource for students at all levels of experience interested in learning about the theatre of Chekhov. Whyman's focus on plays and productions is particularly timely, as the best English-language books devoted exclusively to Chekhov and released over the past decade have focused either on his life (Rosamund Bartlett's Chekhov: Scenes from a Life, 2004), his life and works viewed through a psychoanalytic perspective (Michael Finke's Seeing Chekhov: Life and Art, 2005), or his cultural status in contemporary Russia (Lyudmila Parts's The Chekhovian Intertext: Dialogue with a Classic, 2008). While each of these studies offers important perspectives on the author, none focuses exclusively on his entire theatrical output, nor do they explicate theatrical productions with the same detail. Anton Chekhov is certainly useful for the scholar who is generally interested in Chekhov, but it is clearly written for researchers, teachers, and practitioners as interested in performance as they are in dramatic literature.
Anton Chekhov is organized into two sections, the first of which provides important context by examining the author's life and times, as well as his larger body of literary work. Section 1 includes two chapters, "Life, Context, and Ideas" and "Chekhov's Art and Worldview," respectively. The author's extensive citations show an easy familiarity with...