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Title: The Complete Plays
ISBN: 0393330699
Author:
Anton Chekhov
Publicate Date: 2007-12-10
Publish: 2007-12-10
List Price: $22.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $14.46
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $14.25
Amazon Merchant Price: $15.61
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Comprehensive Scholastic and Nutritious
I had to get this boook for an acting class because the professor (who is Russian) wanted to use a translation other than the more well known Paul Schmidt complete works.
While I like Paul's for a very American translation accessible more to American Actors and audiences, there is admitedly something Russian in spirit about Laurence Senelick's translation. I beleive that translations should really be called adaptations because they are merely another, less exact form of the original. Especially when it comes to language and character, and not merely a plot driven play (e.g. Ibsen) Senelick's translation offer a sense that is less American and probably closer to the russian. The only thing that bothers me and it has taken me some time to be somewhat ok with is that I feel like it reads like a translation and I tend to like more seamless adaptation if I'm going to call it that, which takes authorial intention (to the best of their opinion of what authorial intent is) to create their version of the original version. From a performative aspect I am still not sure how much I like it in the mouths of American tongues, but I see the merit in language that requires and american actor to really invest in a a foriegn thought process and construction.
Other pluses: Variants to every play chekhov wrote, including what can only be described in this day and age as the special features section with deleted scenes. Great look and style to the book overall, if you like that kind of thing, but it will feel like a bible you are carrying around. Paul Schmidt's is nice because it looks and carries like a normal book, but has virtually every play Chekhov wrote.
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2: the best edition
if yer looking for an english-language translation of chekhov's plays, and have come across any of the (at least three that i know of) editions containing the translations by Senelick, there is no need to continue searching: these are, by far, the absolute best renditions currently available. they are not merely literary / intellectual translations, but simultaneously capture the dramatic as well... read and perform. there is simply no other translation that accomplishes both of these feats. actors rejoice! readers revel!
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3: New Translation and Heavily Annotated
A brilliant translation for all lovers of great and enduring literature.
W.W. Norton has published all of Chekhov's dramatic works in a single stunning volume. The translator is a professor of drama at Tufts University and is fluent in the Russian of the period. This volume contains works that have not previously been translated. The plays are heavily annotated for clearer understanding and appreciation of the nuances and subtleties of the original. Before each play, the author includes an interpretation in the context of Russian history at the time. The plays are consequently better understood and enjoyed.
The translator includes variants of the plays, different endings encouraged by the actors who played the parts, unfinished plays, and dialogues.
Senelick includes an illuminating chronology of Chekhov's life in the context of history. Chekhov wrote his great plays while practicing medicine as a physician and suffering from tuberculosis.
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