Ivanov, a driving force in local government and a visionary landowner, feels burnt out at thirty-fi ve. Once the pioneer of scientifi c farming methods and of education for the peasants, he now drowns in bureaucracy and debt, his large estate neglected. While his wife is dying, Sasha, a young, educated woman, falls in love with Ivanov and determines to save him. Set in a country suffering from political, ideological and spiritual stagnation, Chekhov’s fi rst full-length play anticipates the explosive revolutionary atmosphere of Russia at the turn of the century.
