ABSTRACT
The history of ‘The Wood Demon’ is very interesting. There are few people who will find it possible to share Mr. Koteliansky's implied opinion of it, but nobody will fail to be grateful to him for translating it. Readers of Chekhov's letters are already acquainted with the main facts. Chekhov suggested writing a play in collaboration with Suvorin, the editor and proprietor of the ‘Novoye Vremya’, some time in 1888. In a letter to Suvorin at the end of that year he drew up a rough sketch of ‘The Wood Demon’. The sketch, as one would expect, consisted of a description of the characters - their history, appearance, habits. ‘That's the whole programme,’ Chekhov wrote. They had discussed plans, and had allotted particular scenes to one or other of them. But the collaboration did not come off. A year later Chekhov was appealed to by a friend of his, who was on the point of starting a theatre in Moscow, for a play. It was wanted in a great hurry. The actor literally stood over Chekhov's shoulder for a week while the latter dashed off ‘The Wood Demon’. The play was sent, act by act, to the Censor; was put on in Moscow; was not very well received (it was produced badly, and the lessee of the theatre, who was very stout, insisted on playing the part of the youthful heroine); and was taken off by Chekhov. In 1898 he took ‘The Wood Demon’ out of his desk and rewrote it. The result was ‘Uncle Vanya’.
