In Gorky's greatest work, the characters are the dregs of society hovelled in a ramshackle inn: a thief, a degenerate baron, a prostitute, an alcoholic actor, the seedy proprietor, his sister-in-law who loves the thief and others. Their discontent grows until a whistler comes to perk up their spirits and they begin to grow hopeful. In one of their quarrels a brawl erupts, the proprietor is killed, others are jailed and the drunken actor rises to the...

Chekhov's tragicomedy, replete with the kinds of characters we have come to know as "Chekhovian, " incorporates unrequited loves and a murder plot while exploring the social roles of women and the notion of progress. Curt Columbus's splendid new translation and adaptation underscores the contemporary relevance of this prophetic play. The play portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural...

A comedic play by one of post-Petrine Russia's most famous authors.

"In this classic satire on human vanity, the corrupt, self-seeking officials of a small town in Tsarist Russia mistake a penniless clerk from Moscow for a government inspector. Through the wild inventiveness of Gogol's comic fantasy the play becomes a celebration of the grotesque and absurd elements in human nature and remains one of the great comedies of all time." "As well as the complete text of the play itself, the volume contains a chronology...