Cherry Orchard – Anton Chekhov

The Cherry Orchard. By Anton Chekhov. St. Petersburg: Znanie, 1904 by Sbornik T-va Znaniye, First Publication.

First appearance in printed publication of Anton Chekhov’s last play: Vishnyovy Sad [The Cherry Orchard] published in Sbornik T-va Znaniye, Vol. II. First edition. St. Petersburg: Znanie, 1904, which preceded the separate publication by A. F. Marks Publishers later in the same year.

Rebound in a quarter leather hardcover binding, 5.75 x 8, 318 pages. Partial split to the front board’s joint, edgewear and rubbing to boards, bumped corners, rubbing to leather spine, and ink stamp at front free endpaper.

Written by Chekhov in 1903, The Cherry Orchard was first performed under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski in the Moscow Art Theater on January 17th, 1904. Though Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce, Stanislavski treated it as a tragedy. It was then published in this issue of Sbornik T-va Znaniye, appearing on pages 29-106.

Also found in this issue, Mirnoye Zhit’yo [A Peaceful Living] by Alexandr Kuprin (1890-1937), as well as an important novel Evrei [The Jews] by Solomon Yushkevich (1864-1927), that shocked the progressive Russian public by describing the horror of anti-Jewish violence in Tsarist Russia.