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65 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1895
“The conviction is gradually forcing itself upon me that good literature is not a question of forms new or old, but of ideas that must pour freely from the author’s heart, without his bothering his head about any forms whatsoever.”This quote doesn’t actually have a whole lot to do with The Seagull but one of its characters—a character whom I didn’t even like very much, if I’m being honest—says it in a soliloquy, which is the only time he seems to say anything interesting. But while this play does talk about books and literature and features writers and actors as characters and even contains a play-within-a-play, it is actually more about the things that aren’t being discussed. Because that is sort of how Chekhov rolls, right? It is the layering of subtext that fuels the play’s energies.