Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchFebruary 23.Greetings, my dear friend.Your telegram about the Tormidor upset me. I felt dreadfully attractedto Petersburg: now for the sake of Sardou and the Parisianvisitors. But practical considerations pulled me up. I reflected that Imust hurry on with my novel; that I don’t know French, and soshould only be taking up someone else’s place in the box; that I havevery little money, and so on. In short, as it seems to me now, I am apoor comrade, though apparently I acted sensibly.My novel is progressing. It’s all smooth, even, there is scarcelyanything that is too long. But do you know what is very bad? Thereis no movement in my novel, and that frightens me. I am afraid itwill be difficult to read to the middle, to say nothing of reading tothe end. Anyway, I shall finish it. I shall bring Anna Pavlovna acopy on vellum paper to read in the bathroom. I should like somethingto sting her in the water, so that she would run out of thebathroom sobbing.I was melancholy when you went away ….Send me some money. I have none and seem to have nowhere toborrow. By my reckoning I cannot under favourable circumstancesget more than a thousand roubles from you before September. Butdon’t send the money by post, as I can’t bear going to post offices ….220