"A distinctive trademark of our new versions of Chekhov's plays is our inclusion of certain variants that have rarely been incorporated into American translations of Chekhov's work. Chekhov, like all Russian playwrights of the period, experienced government censorship of his manuscripts in which politically or socially controversial lines and ideas were required to be cut or changed ... Fortunately, these early cuts and additions were preserved and published in a Soviet-era Chekhov collection I used to create my literal translations. Libby then selected the variants she feld would be most compatible with our adaptations and included them in the text ..."--Allison Horsley, page xi.