Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO HIS BROTHER IVAN.VENICE, March 24, 1891.I am now in Venice. I arrived here two days ago from Vienna.One thing I can say: I have never in my life seen a town more marvellousthan Venice. It is perfectly enchanting, brilliance, joy, life.Instead of streets and roads there are canals; instead of cabs, gondolas.The architecture is amazing, and there is not a single spot thatdoes not excite some historical or artistic interest. You float in agondola and see the palace of the Doges, the house where Desdemonalived, homes of various painters, churches. And in the churches thereare sculptures and paintings such as we have never dreamed of. Infact it is enchantment.All day from morning till night I sit in a gondola and glide alongthe streets, or I saunter about the famous St. Mark’s Square. Thesquare is as level and clean as a parquet floor. Here there is St.Mark’s—something impossible to describe—the Palace of the Doges,and other buildings which make me feel as I do listening to partsinging—I feel the amazing beauty and revel in it.And the evenings! My God! One might almost die of the strangenessof it. One goes in a gondola … warmth, stillness, stars ….There are no horses in Venice, and so there is a silence here as in theopen country. Gondolas flit to and fro, … then a gondola glides by,hung with lanterns. In it are a double-bass, violins, a guitar, a mandolinand cornet, two or three ladies, several men, and one hearssinging and music. They sing from operas. What voices! One goeson a little further and again meets a boat with singers, and thenagain, and the air is full, till midnight, of the mingled strains ofviolins and tenor voices, and all sorts of heart-stirring sounds.Merezhkovsky, whom I have met here, is off his head with ecstasy.For us poor and oppressed Russians it is easy to go out of our mindshere in a world of beauty, wealth, and freedom. One longs to remainhere for ever, and when one stands in the churches and listensto the organ one longs to become a Catholic.The tombs of Canova and Titian are magnificent. Here they burygreat artists like kings in churches; here they do not despise art as226

Anton Chekhovwith us; the churches provide a shelter for pictures and statues howevernaked they may be.In the Palace of the Doges there is a picture in which there areabout ten thousand human figures.To-day is Sunday. There will be a band playing in St. Mark’sSquare ….If you ever happen to come to Venice it will be the best thing inyour life. You ought to see the glass here! Your bottles* are so hideouscompared with the things here, that it makes one sick to thinkof them.I will write again; meanwhile, good-bye.*His brother Ivan was teaching in a school attached to a glass factory.227

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