The princess
Subtitle: and other stories
By: Anton Chekhov ; translated with an introduction and notes by Ronald Hingley.
Contributors: Hingley, Ronald.
Edition: Reissued Oxford World's Classics paperback
Series: Oxford world's classics
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9780192837882
Copyright date: 1998
Subjects: Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904 -- Translations into English; Russia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Genres: Translations into English.; Fiction.
Description: Dr. Michael Ivanovich's pent-up fury with the unwelcome philanthropy of Princess Vera finds a long-awaited vent when he encounters her one evening in the garden of a monastery she has honoured with a visit. Throwing caution and class protocol to the winds, he accuses her of monstrous interference in others' lives, to nobody's good but her own . . .

A doctor himself, Chekhov was acutely observant of Russian society in all its aspects of sickness, both physical and moral. The question for him as a writer was whether to moralize - to attempt to reform - or to entertain. It was a question which is implicitly answered by the stories themselves. They offer no easy answers, but they pinpoint the anguish, tedium, or downright evil of his characters with an irony that makes them both poignant and truthful.
Notes: "This selection first issued as a World's Classics paperback, 1990"--T.p. verso.
Table of contents: title: The party; title: Lights; title: The princess; title: After the theatre; title: Three years; title: The artist's story; title: Home; title: A case history; title: All friends together; title: The bishop; title: A marriageable girl.