4\5
The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekhov

The Cherry Orchard is a Russian play written by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, probably known as a short-stories writer actually he is considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature! and as strange as it may sound, but I think that somehow I have enjoyed reading this one play more than any other short story I previously read for him!

I quite loved the dialogues between the characters and the simple language of the play. Here’s one of my favourite lines in the play:

“TROFIMOV. The human race progresses, perfecting its powers. Everything that is unattainable now will some day be near at hand and comprehensible, but we must work, we must help with all our strength those who seek to know what fate will bring. Meanwhile in Russia only a very few of us work. The vast majority of those intellectuals whom I know seek for nothing, do nothing, and are at present incapable of hard work. They call themselves intellectuals, but they use “thou” and “thee” to their servants, they treat the peasants like animals, they learn badly, they read nothing seriously, they do absolutely nothing, about science they only talk, about art they understand little. They are all serious, they all have severe faces, they all talk about important things. They philosophize, and at the same time, the vast majority of us, ninety-nine out of a hundred, live like savages, fighting and cursing at the slightest opportunity, eating filthily, sleeping in the dirt, in stuffiness, with fleas, stinks, smells, moral filth, and so on… And it’s obvious that all our nice talk is only carried on to distract ourselves and others. Tell me, where are those créches we hear so much of? and where are those reading-rooms? People only write novels about them; they don’t really exist. Only dirt, vulgarity, and Asiatic plagues really exist… . I’m afraid, and I don’t at all like serious faces; I don’t like serious conversations. Let’s be quiet sooner.”