This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Excerpt: "Life is a vexatious trap; when a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness he cannot help feeling that he is in a trap from which there is no escape."Ward No. Six (1892) Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is often referred to as one of the seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. He made no apologies for the difficulties he posed to the readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.