01587nam a2200241 i 4500 501430 InACL 20261015150434.0 261015s1994 xxu 0 eng d 9780805744514 0805744517 InACL eng rda InACL 891.723 RAY 23 Rayfield, Donald author The Cherry Orchard : Catastrophe and Comedy / Donald Rayfield. New York : Twayne Publishers, 1994 xiv, 146 p. : text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier For 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 Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 634205 634205 0 0 0 0 ACL ACL GEN 2026-10-15 0 891.723 RAY 501430 2026-10-15 15:04:34 2026-10-15 BK