A Provincial Life

Description

Chekhov's long story My Life, upon which this play is based, was written in 1896 during the period of his maturity as a story writer. His work of this time is a powerful reflection of contemporary Russian life. The story Ward 6 for example, set in a decrepit provincial hospital, with one terrible ward for the mentally sick, is such a strong image of the Russian intellectual's dilemma, that the young Lenin was reported after reading it to have been seized with such a horror that he could not bear to stay in his room. He went out to find someone to talk to; but it was too late: they had all gone to bed. "I had absolutely the feeling", he told his sister the next day, "that I was shut up in Ward 6 myself"'.;Born into a bourgeois family, Misail determines to find a way to lead an honest life free from privilege. To his father's disapproval and bewilderment, he renounces his heritage and becomes a workman before moving to the country to manage the estate of the girl that he marries. Over the course of a long summer, his burning sense of injustice and deep integrity exact a devastating forfeit.