01556nam a2200229 i 4500001000700000003000600007005001700013008004100030020001800071020001500089040002700104082002100131100002900152245006900181264004100250300001800291336002600309337002800335338002700363520089600390650004001286501430InACL20261015150434.0261015s1994    xxu               0 eng d  a9780805744514  a0805744517  aInACLbengerdacInACL04a891.723bRAY2231 aRayfield, Donaldeauthor14aThe Cherry Orchard :bCatastrophe and Comedy /cDonald Rayfield. 1aNew York :bTwayne Publishers,c1994  axiv, 146 p. :  atextbtxt2rdacontent  aunmediatedbn2rdamedia  avolumebnc2rdacarrier  aFor decades after its first performance in 1904, Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard fomented controversy among producers, actors, critics, and audiences. Along with its intrinsic textual richness, linguistic power, and subtlety, the play is saturated with many different, apparently incompatible, elements; it constantly shifts from comedy to pathos, its language concomitantly oscillating from music hall vulgarity to prose poetry.Chekhov assigned a personal way of speaking to each character, divorcing consequence from action, cause from effect. Despite the controversy generated by its paradoxical nature, however, The Cherry Orchard has become a milestone in twentieth-century drama.. In this astute analysis of Chekhov's last play, Donald Rayfield argues that The Cherry Orchard can be best understood when read as a culmination of the dramatist's major plays, particularly The Seagull 0aChekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904