Unlike the novels of Dostoevsky, which revealed the demonic potential of the human psyche, Chekhov’s plays and stories portrayed ordinary men and women leading uneventful, often humdrum lives.

The Three Sisters, whether seen at the Morosco or read in a book, is eminently a case of “literature written for the stage.” The usual Chekhovian profusion of detail swells into an immense opulence in this play. Farce and tragedy coalesce in an intricate, often…

-NY Review Books