The Lábedievs are having a party. A drab affair. For the wife,
Zinaida, is a comic miser. Paul, the husband, drinks. And their
guests are equally third-rate--concerned only to chatter of lottery-
tickets, to wrangle over cards, or to backbite their neighbours'
characters. At this very moment, as it happens, they are maliciously
busy with the character of Ivánov himself. But the Lábedievs'
daughter, Sasha--the party is in honour of her twentieth birthday--
bursts into passionate defence of the absent victim. A moment
later--enter Ivánov.

Soon the bored guests troop out to fireworks in the garden. Left
alone with Sasha, the weary, unheroic hero pours out to her his
domestic miseries, tied to a sick wife he can no longer love. Sasha's
consolation is highly practical--she throws herself at his head.

At first, in dismay, Ivánov begs her to be silent. Then he grows
bewitched. He dreams of growing young again. But meanwhile the
lonely Anna has forced her Dr Lvov, despite the cold night air, to
bring her too to the party. She walks in from the garden just in time
to see Sasha in her husband's arms. She faints. (At this date Chekhov
was still ready to employ 'strong curtains'--in contrast to those
muted endings that he later came to prefer.)

A fortnight has passed. Sent by his stingy Zinaida, Lébediev comes
to dun Ivánov for what he owes them. But Ivánov cannot pay; and
Lébediev, touched with pity for his old student-friend, offers to pay
the sum himself, without Zinaida's knowledge. Ivánov refuses.

Then reappears Dr Lvov. This honest prig, underbred and over-
bearing, is the louder in his righteous indignation for being himself
in love with Anna. Again he curses Ivánov for killing his wife with
neglect. Ivánov in reply is as full of guilt as a Communist in a
Russian purge. But he cannot, cannot change his ways.

Next, by a backway (to avoid Anna), enter Sasha, handsome in
her riding-dress. She reproaches Ivánov for a fortnight's absence;
and it grows clear that this passionate young girl is really one of
those masterful, maternal women who like setting themselves to

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