l presentation of a type which we know as the sybaritical
citizen; the character of the valet is so fantastical that the
account of his adventures belongs absolutely to the "genre" of the
newspaper novel.[3]

[3] In many European papers there is always to be found a part
called the "feuilleton," which usually consists of a serial story,
continued from day to day.

"Ward No. 6" is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful
story that Tchekoff has written. It is an analysis of moral
degeneration, leading progressively to insanity, in a doctor who is
seized by the pervasive banality of the village in which he
practises. Tchekoff, like many other Russian writers, has shown
himself a master in the study of certain psychological anomalies.
Certain conversations between the doctor, who himself is going mad,
and a patient who has long since lost his reason, interesting as
they are from a philosophical standpoint, leave the world of reality
and run free according to the imagination of the author, who takes
advantage of this to formulate some of his favorite theories.

* * * * *

Tchekoff has also tried himself out on the drama, and he has there
established himself in a peculiar manner. His plays, like his other
literary productions, belong to two distinct periods.

There are some amusing little trifles that do not amount to much.
Among these are: "The Bear," "The Asking in Marriage," and others.
Then come the more serious plays, where one feels for a moment the
influence of Ibsen. We find here again the same heroes, each of whom
talks about his own particular case, and acts only in starts. These
are specimens of "failures" belonging to the most tiresome
provincial society.

In "Ivanov," the author studies the mentality of a "failure."
Dominated by a sickly self-love, he has known nothing but losses. He
continually complains of his real and his imaginary sufferings.
After squandering all his fortune, he marries a young girl, whom he
wants to have act as his nurse. This empty life ends in suicide.

In "Uncle Vanya," we have Vanya, a man full of goodness, modesty,
and self-abnegation contrasted with the celebrated professor
Serebriakof, an egoist, unfeeling, scornful, and ungrateful. The
latter, who has recently remarried, comes back to the estate which
Uncle Vanya, the brother of his first wife, has managed for him. For
several years Vanya has been working incessantly; he has save