Anton Chekhov, Ivanov

John Reid (University of the West of England)
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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 “Antosha Chekonte”, Chekhov had churned out hundreds of farcical…

2942 words

Citation: Reid, John. "Ivanov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4431, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4431 Ivanov 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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