Three Sisters – by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Eric Forsythe
The University of Iowa
Department of Theatre Arts
Place: Just outside Perm, Russia
Time: 1900. Pre-1905 Russian Revolution
19th Century Russia
by Joseph Nurijand, Dec 29, 2007
19th century Russia was a place of great chaos; power hungry, tumultuous leaders, and both violent
and revolutionary ideas. The society of Russia was very strict, and the population was divided into
obligatory social classes. Unfortunately, even in the modern world of today with new laws,
amendments, and constitutions meant to protect citizens' rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, society seems to directly replicate the social hierarchies of 19th century Russia.
The social hierarchy of Russia divided the population into five different formations. These
included from the top to bottom, clergy, nobility, merchants, middling urbanites, and peasants.
Many Russians began to realize that their social definitions no longer applied to their lifestyle, due
to the creation of new careers and professions. Those citizens who were moving into new
professions found themselves in somewhat of an identity crisis as the customary social hierarchy
began to fall apart. The social hierarchies were clearly not working for many citizens, and yet
officials continued to strictly enforce compliance with hierarchy class.
Although it may seem as if today's society does not have a system of hierarchies, there are still
remnants of a social class system dispersed throughout any lifestyle. For example, in schools there
are hierarchies among students and there are also hierarchies among staff. The class system of
students may be based upon multiple aspects of one's life, such as his or her popularity, grades,
personality, or beliefs and moral values.
Among the staff of a school, likewise with any workplace or organization, there will always be
hierarchies which will divide the population. Teachers, administrators, bus drivers, janitors,
librarians, nurses, etc. may all be put into different, or similar, “classes” based on many of their own
characteristics, which could include education or salary. Social classes and hierarchies may be
necessary, but they may also have negative affects.
Indeed, the social hierarchies of 19th century Russia were more profound, and ruled over one's
entire life, but the basic formation of the population into groups seems to be reflected into today's
modern society. Source: http://www.socyberty.com/History/19th-Century-Russia.69668
Perm, Russia - takes the third place among Russian cities, after Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.
Perm is located on the bank of the Kama River (the river to which Vershínin refers on pg. 12). The
Kama is the main tributary of the Volga River and the one of the deepest and most picturesque
rivers of Russia. The Kama is the water-way which grants the Urals access to the White Sea, Baltic
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Sea, Sea of Azov, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. Kama divides the city into two parts, Central part and
right-banked part. The city stretches for a 70 km along the Kama and 40 km across of it. All
latitudinal streets settle down along the river, all meridinal streets across of it.
The city is situated on hills. The distinguishing feature of the city's relief is the large quantity of small
rivers and brooks. The largest of them are the Mulyanka, Yegoshikha, Motoviliha (all are in left bank
of Kama River), and Gaiva (in right bank of Kama River). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perm
How Healthy was Russia in 1900?
By 1900 Russia was one of the great powers in Europe, yet it faced many problems.
For a healthy country we would expect stability in terms of politics, social structure and the
economy. We would expect a strong government capable of making decisions and dealing with
problems. We would expect a society where the majority of people are happy with how they live
and what they are allowed to do. We would also expect a strong economy, with people becoming
richer, and the wealth distributed evenly.
Politically Russia had been stable for hundreds of years. The autocratic tsarist system had worked,
and had been in the same family for 300 years. But in 1900 it faced new problems. The tsar wanted
Russia to modernize so it could stay as a major power in the world, but this was hard to do whist
maintaining the autocracy. Modernization and Industrialization led to better-educated people, and
a rise in the middle class who wanted more say in Government.
Also the tsar in 1900 was incompetent. He stubbornly defended his rights and privileges, and was
determined to rule, yet lacked the necessary qualities to do so. As a result he could only meddle
and disrupt the workings of government without leading it. He was too polite to confront ministers,
and as a result he was unable to control subordinates. This strange and unpredictable behaviour
soon led to insecurity and rumors within the government.
On top of these new problems, there were many that had been around for a long time. The whole
system was very inefficient, and there was a huge bureaucracy of civil servants who took ages to get
anything done.
Moreover, many people were unhappy with the autocratic system and there were many
revolutionary groups opposed to the tsar. Amongst these were non-Russian nationalities that
wanted more self-control and resented being controlled by Russia.
Overall Russia was quite unhealthy in terms of Politics. Although the system had worked for
hundreds of years, it was beginning to break down and the incapable tsar was doing nothing to help
it.
Russia had a very feudal and medieval social system. 77% of the population were peasants who
were poor and illiterate. Because of this, poor harvests led to starving and uprisings. This created
great instability with the majority of the population. The government dealt with these problems
using force, which, although stopping unrest in the short term, further created hatred for the tsar.
Although the majority of the population were peasants, urban workers were on the increase due to
modernisation. These workers were educated and had revolutionary ideas about how the Russia
should be governed.
Other nationalities were treated as inferior, and were forced to speak Russian, wear Russian clothes
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and adopt Russian culture.
On top of this, people were denied basic freedom of speech. All opposition was forceful crushed
using the Cossacks. This can be seen as a good thing though. As a result there was never any big
opposition to the tsar, and therefore the government was more stable.
This resulted in a very unhealthy Russia in terms of Social structure. Seventy-seven percent of the
population was starving on a regular basis, and the others were coming up with revolutionary ideas.
This meant there was just a revolution waiting to happen.
Economically Russia was extremely unbalanced. About 1% of the population owned 25% of the
land. Peasants often had uprisings and called for land, but this was never granted and they were
crushed by force.
To help modernization Witte squeezed resources from the peasants and kept workers wages low in
a bid to help the economy. In theory this could have worked but bad harvests and economic slumps
caused starvation for the peasants and increased workers dissatisfaction with the government.
The economic slump in 1902 meant that Russia couldn’t sell its products. This showed that the
economy wasn’t very stable and was reliant on other countries.
This all shows a mainly unhealthy Russian economy. Although Witte’s reforms could have increased
the overall wealth of the country, they failed to do so due to events outside Russia’s control.
In conclusion Russia wasn’t very healthy at all in 1900. Some problems had been around for
centuries, while others were relatively short term. The social and economic imbalance between the
aristocrats and the general population had for centuries been a major problem, as well as the
inefficient and bureaucratic method of government. The weak tsar, as well as the problem of
modernization also contributed to Russia’s problems. On the other hand Witte’s did his best to heal
Russia’s economic problems, and the government was able to stop any opposition that would
decrease stability in the country. Yet overall in the end Russia was in terrible condition. It was
extremely unhealthy in political, social and Economic terms, and with the rise in educated
revolutionaries, change was inevitable. Source: http://homepage.mac.com/swain/essays/russiain-1900.html
1905 Russian Revolution - The 1905 Russian Revolution also known as the Failed Russian
Revolution of 1905 was an empire-wide struggle of violence, both anti-government and undirected,
that swept through vast areas of the Russian Empire. It was not controlled or managed, and it had
no single cause or aim, but instead was the culmination of decades of unrest and dissatisfaction
stemming from the autocratic rule of the Romanov dynasty and the slow pace of reform in Russian
society as well as calls for national liberation by non-Russians within the Empire. The direct cause
was the abject failure of the Tsar's military forces in the initially-popular Russo-Japanese War, which
set off a series of revolutionary activities, sometimes by mutinous soldiers and at other times by
revolutionary societies.
Although it was put down with a blend of accommodation and savagery, the Revolution did
increase the pace of reform in Russia, but not enough to prevent the second revolution which
overturned the Romanovs in 1917. The Revolution of 1905 was often looked back on by the
Bolsheviks as an initial popular antecedent to their own revolution.
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The liberal Tsar Alexander II, who had emancipated the serfs in 1861 and passed other social
reforms, was assassinated on March 1, 1881 by Narodnik (populist) terrorists. His conservative
successor, Alexander III, governed with an iron fist. Both the state and the church were subordinate
to this autocracy, which in 1905 was headed by Alexander III's son, Nicholas II1, of the House of
Romanov.
Five percent of Russia's population consisted of the nobles, who owned most of the land. The
peasants, with the small but growing industrial working class (proletariat), made up eighty four
percent of the Russian populace. Their land, labor, and goods were fiercely controlled by the
aristocracy and their socio-economic conditions were usually poor. In the Russian Empire serious
disturbances had been rare in the decades prior to 1905. Nonetheless, political discontent had been
building since Tsar Alexander II's 1861 decree which saw the emancipation of the serfs. Prior to this,
the serfs had been penniless slaves, living on borrowed land and paying rent to the landlords with
cash and labor; now (having been given the right to own land and freed from compulsory service
and obedience towards the nobility), they were merely penniless. The emancipation was
dangerously incomplete, however, with years of "redemption" payments to the nobility, and only
limited, technical freedom for the narod (common people or society in the Russian language).
Rights for the people were still embedded in a range of duties and rules which were rigidly
structured by social class. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905
Photograph by the Levitsky Company of the last Russian
Imperial Family. Clockwise from top: the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna,
the Grand Duchess Anastasia, the Tsarevich Alexei, the Grand Duchess Tatiana,
Tsar Nicholas II, the Grand Duchess Olga, and the Grand Duchess Maria. Livadia, 1913
Russian military structure R
I - General-Field-Marshal /Сhancellor
II - General of Infantry/General of Cavalry
III - Lieutenant-General
IV - Major-General
VII - Lieutenant-Colonel Nadvorny Sovetnik
VIII - Captain IX Junior captain
X - Lieutenant
XI - XII - Second Lieutenant
XII - Ensign
Source: http://www3.webng.com/rusgenealogy/table.htm
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Pg. 3 – Moscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest city in Europe, with
its metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is the country's
political, economic, religious, financial, educational and transportation centre. It is located on the
Moskva River in the Central Federal District, in the European part of Russia. Historically, it was the
capital of the former Soviet Union and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the pre-Imperial Russian state.
It is the site of the Moscow Kremlin, which serves as the ceremonial residence of the President of
Russia. The city is named after the river (old Russian: Моско́ в, literally "the city by the Moskva
River"). The origin of the name is unknown, although several theories exist. One theory suggests
that the source of the name is an ancient Finnic language, in which it means “dark” and “turbid”.
The first Russian reference to Moscow dates from 1147 when Yuri Dolgoruki called upon the prince
of the Novgorod Republic to “come to me, brother, to Moscow.” Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow
Pg. 5 – naphthalene also known as naphthalene, naphthalene, napthene, tar camphor, white tar,
albocarbon, or antimite and not to be confused with naphtha, is a crystalline, aromatic, white, solid
hydrocarbon. It is best known as the traditional, primary ingredient of mothballs. It is volatile,
forming a flammable vapor, and readily sublimes at room temperature, producing a characteristic
odor that is detectable at concentrations as low as 0.08 ppm by mass. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphthalene
Pg. 6 – Petersburg (Saint) - is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the
head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd (1914–1924)
and Leningrad (1924–1991). It is often called just Petersburg, and is informally known as Piter.
Founded by Tsar Peter I of Russia on May 27, 1703, it was the capital of the Russian Empire for
more than two hundred years (1713–1728, 1732–1918). Saint Petersburg ceased being the capital
in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917. It is Russia's second largest and Europe's fourth
largest city (by city limit) after Moscow, London and Paris. The city has 4.6 million inhabitants, and
over 6 million people live in its vicinity. Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and an
important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. Saint Petersburg is often described as the most Western
European styled city of Russia. Among cities of the world with over one million people, Saint
Petersburg is the northernmost. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of
Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Russia's political and cultural center for 200
years, the city is sometimes referred to in Russia as the northern capital. A large number of foreign
consulates, international corporations, banks and other businesses are located in Saint Petersburg.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg.
Pg. 7 – Dobrolyúbov - born Nikolay Aleksandrovich Dobrolyubov (1836 - 1861) “was the chief
literary critic of the influential journal Souvreménnik (The Contemporary). He was read by all
progressive thinkers.” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt,
Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 319.
“Beside the sea there stands a tree, and on that tree…” “the first two lines from Ruslan and
Liudmilla (see below) , a well-know fairy-tale poem by Alexander Pushkin (1799 – 1837). Source:
The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 319.
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For you alone, enchanting beauties,
Queens of my spirit, for your sake
Did I convert to scribal duties
Some golden leisure hours, and make,
To whisperings of garrulous ages,
Once-upon-a-time my faithful task.
Accept them, then, these playful pages;
And no one's praises do I ask
From fate, but shall be pleased to thank it
If one young girl should love, and pine,
And peep, perhaps beneath her blanket,
At these unshriven songs of mine.
An oak tree greening by the ocean;
A golden chain about it wound:
Whereon a learned cat, in motion
Both day and night, will walk around;
On walking right, he sings a ditty;
On walking left, he tells a lay.
A magic place: there wends his way
The wood sprite, there's a mermaid sitting
On branches, there on trails past knowing
Are tracks of beasts you never met;
On chicken feet a hut is set
With neither door nor window showing.
There wood and dale with wonders team;
At dawn of day the breakers stream
Upon the bare and barren lea,
And thirty handsome armored heroes
File from the waters' shining mirrors,
With them their Usher from the Sea.
There glimpse a prince, and in his passing
He makes a dreaded tsar his slave;
Aloft, before the people massing.
Across the wood, across the wave,
A warlock bears a warrior brave;
See Baba Yaga's mortar glide
All of itself, with her astride.
There droops Kashchey, on treasure bent;
There's Russia's spirit...Russian scent!
And there I stayed, and drank of mead;
That oak tree greening by the shore
I sat beneath, and of his lore
The learned cat would chant and read.
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One tale of these I kept in mind,
And tell it now to all my kind...
Pg. 8 – “Said the dog to the flea, don’t jump on me.” – taken from a fable by Ivan Krylov. In using
this quote, the actual lines being: “He didn’t catch his breath before the bear jumped on him,”
Chekhov was employing a literary technique to indicate a speech characteristic of Solyóny who has
a habit of making statements that usually have nothing to do with what he is talking about. Source:
The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 320.
Pg. 9 – large silver tea service – “A Russian tea service consists of an urn designed to keep water
hot, called a samovar, a teapot that is kept warm on its top, and perhaps a tray. This is the kind of
elaborate present offered at bridal showers or silver wedding anniversaries, and it seems especially
inappropriate for Chebutykin to have offered it to Irina.” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A
New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 320.
Pg. 11 – Basmány Street – (Basmanny District) is a district of Central Administrative Okrug of
Moscow, Russia. The district contains Kursky Rail Terminal, historical areas of Khitrovka, Clean
Ponds, Red Gates (shared with Krasnoselsky District), German Quarter and Basmannaya Sloboda. It
retains memorial buildings of Petrine Baroque, Neoclassicism and Art Nouveau periods. Its history is
closely associated with Peter I of Russia, Matvey Kazakov and Alexander Pushkin. The district is
home to Russia's largest engineering college, Moscow State Technical University. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basmanny_District
Pg. 13 – Nóvo-Dévichy Cemetery – a famous Moscow cemetery in which Chekhov himself is buried.
Russian author Nikolai Gogol (from whom Chekhov often quotes in Three Sisters) is also buried
there. Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters –
Notes, pg. 320.
Pg. 18 – Russian Orthodox - The Russian Church or The Moscow Patriarchate also known as the
Orthodox Christian Church of Russia, is a body of Christians who constitute an autocephalous (in
hierarchical Christian churches, this is the status of a hierarchical church whose head bishop does
not report to any higher-ranking bishop). Eastern Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the
Patriarch of Moscow, in communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Orthodox_Church
Pg. 19 – “mens sana in corpora sano” – Translation from Latin: “A healthy mind in a healthy body.”
Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg.
320.
Pg. 26 – carnival (Maslenitsa in Russia) is a Russian folk holiday that incorporates some traditions
that date back to pagan times. It is celebrated during the last week before the Great Lent; that is,
the seventh week before Easter. Maslenitsa is a direct analog of the Roman Catholic Carnival.
Maslenitsa has a dual ancestry: pagan and Christian.
Maslenitsa also includes masquerades, snowball fights, sledding, swinging on swings and plenty of
sleigh rides. The mascot of the celebration is usually a brightly dressed straw effigy of Lady
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Maslenitsa, formerly known as Kostroma. As the culmination of the celebration, on Sunday evening,
Lady Maslenitsa is stripped of her finery, and put to the flames of a bonfire.
In Saint Petersburg the modern celebration of the festival is organized by the city to fall on a fixed
date annually (at Sunday, closest to May 27th). Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival#Russia
Pg. 31 – Sarátov - is located in the heart of Volga River Valley Region. Once the capital of the LowerVolga region, it is now the center of one of the biggest provinces in Russia. Saratov province is in the
southeast of the East-European plain in the Lower Volga region. The province's area equals to the
total area of such states as Belgium, Switzerland and Albania. The province extends 575 km from
the west to the east, and 240 km from the north to the south. Saratov has a size of close to 380
square kilometers and a population of about nine hundred thousand people. Saratov became an
important shipping port in the 1800s, and developed industrially after a railroad linking it to
Moscow was finished in 1870. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratov &
http://www.geocities.com/wallstreet/7138/text_6.htm
Pg. 35 - “Gogol” - Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer, often called the
"father of modern Russian realism," he was one of the first Russian authors to criticize his country's
way of life. The novels Taras Bul'ba (1835; 1842 and Dead Souls (1842), the play The InspectorGeneral (1836, 1842), and the short story The Overcoat (1842) are among his best known works.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol
Balzac - Honoré de Balzac (20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a nineteenth-century
French novelist and playwright. Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation
of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is
renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally
ambiguous and fully human. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac
Berdíchev - is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving
as the administrative center of the Berdychivskyi Raion (district). In 1850, he married Ewelina
Hańska, his longtime paramour; he died five months later.* Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berdychiv
Pg. 38 – “…that French politician, the one who went to prison.” – “Baihot, the French minister of
public works was sent to prison in 1893 for accepting a bribe from a group of developers who
hoped to build a canal in Panama. On his release, in 1898, he published his diary under the title
“Notes from a Prison Cell.” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul
Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 320
Pg. 39 – “Je vous prie, pardonnez-moi, Marie…” – Translation from French: “I beg of you, excuse
me, Másha, but your manners are a little unrefined.” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New
Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 320
“Il parait que mon Bóbik déjà ne dort pas – et il est…” – Translation from the French: “It
appears as if my Bobik doesn’t sleep, and he is…”
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Pg. 40 – “I am strange, but are all strange! Cool thy wrath, Aléko!” – “Solyóny quotes correctly
from Alexánder Griboyédev’s play Woe from Wit, then makes an [offhand] reference to Aléko, the
hero of Pushkin’s poem “Gypsies.” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul
Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 320
“…I have the soul of Lérmontov” – The poet Mikhaíl Lérmontov (1814 – 1841) was the great
Russian example of the Byronic hero and met an early death in a duel. [This possibly foreshadows
the duel in Act IV], however, Chekhov remarked that, ‘Solyóny thinks he looks like Lérmontov…but
of course, it’s all in his head.’” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul
Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 320
Pg. 41 – “…a meat dish called chekhartmá…Cheremshá…a kind of onion.” “Both Solyóny and
Chebutýkin are correct in their use of these Georgian (Caucasian) words. Chekhartmá is a meat dish
and cheremshá is a kind of onion.” Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul
Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 321
Caucasus - also referred to as Caucasia, is a geopolitical, mountain-barrier region located
between the two continents of Europe and Asia, or Eurasia. The Caucasus comprises Georgia,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, northwestern Iran, northeastern Turkey and includes the
disputed territories of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasus
Pg. 47 – “O, fallacem hominum spem!” – Translation from Latin: “Oh, mistaken hope of men!”
Source: The Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg.
321
Pg. 54 – “In vino veritas…” – Translation from Latin: “There is truth in wine.” Source: The Plays of
Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 321
Pg. 58 – “Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant.” – Translation from Latin: “To love [amas
amat amamus amatis ], being loved.” Source:
http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=Amo%2C+amas%2
C+amat%2C+amamus%2C+amatis%2C+amant%0D%0A&from=ltt&to=eng
Pg. 61 – Gogol’s madman - One of the oldest cases of schizophrenia in Gogol's Diary of a Madman
(1834). Nicolai Gogol's classic short story Diary of a Madman (1834) contains one of the earliest,
and most complete, descriptions of schizophrenia. Beyond intrinsic and historical interest, this case
is important because it has implications for the antiquity, and possibly the etiology (the study of
cause and effect), of schizophrenia. From a literary point of view, the story can be appreciated as a
sketch albeit a most brilliant one of the disease. Source: Eric Lewin Altschuler, assistant
director, Brain and Perception Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive,
0109, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA
Pg. 67 – “modus vivendi” – Translated from Latin: “agree to disagree.” Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_vivendi
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Pg. 69 - The Maiden's Prayer – a short religious composition from Poland, 1856 written by Tekla
Badarzewska was 22 years old. Also, a favorite 19th century parlor favorite: La Prière d’une Vierge
by Varanowski. Sources:
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=76d7f5d18104f1c21f34 & The Plays of Anton
Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 321
Pg. 73 – “But every rebel seeks a storm…” – from Lérmontov’s famous poem, The Sail. Source: The
Plays of Anton Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 322
Pg. 76 – “Il ne faut pas faire de bruit, la Sophie est dormée déjà. Vousêtes un ours.” – “You should
not make noise. Sophie is already asleep. You sound like a bear.” Source: The Plays of Anton
Chekhov, A New Translation by Paul Schmidt, Three Sisters – Notes, pg. 32
*
Please note that this is anachronism made by Chekhov as the Three Sisters was written in
1900 and Balzac died in 1850.
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