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Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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<strong>Anton</strong> <strong>Chekhov</strong>TO A. S. SUVORIN.MOSCOW, November 22, 1891.My health is on the road to improvement. My cough is less, mystrength is greater. My mood is livelier, and there is sunrise in myhead. I wake up in the morning in good spirits, go to bed withoutgloomy thoughts, and at dinner I am not ill-humoured and don’tsay nasty things to my mother.I don’t know when I shall come to you. I have heaps <strong>of</strong> work pourmanger. Till the spring I must work—that is, at senseless grind. Aray <strong>of</strong> liberty has beamed upon my horizon. There has come a whiff<strong>of</strong> freedom. Yesterday I got a letter from the province <strong>of</strong> Poltava.They write they have found me a suitable place. A brick house <strong>of</strong>seven rooms with an iron ro<strong>of</strong>, lately built and needing no repairs, astable, a cellar, an icehouse, eighteen acres <strong>of</strong> land, an excellentmeadow for hay, an old shady garden on the bank <strong>of</strong> the river Psyol.The river bank is mine; on that side there is a marvellous view overa wide expanse. The price is merciful. Three thousand, and twothousand deferred payment over several years. Five in all. If heavenhas mercy upon me, and the purchase comes <strong>of</strong>f, I shall move therein March for good, to live quietly in the lap <strong>of</strong> nature for nine monthsand the rest <strong>of</strong> the year in Petersburg. I am sending my sister to lookat the place.Ach! liberty, liberty! If I can live on not more than two thousanda year, which is only possible in the country, I shall be absolutelyfree from all anxieties over money coming in and going out. Then Ishall work and read, read … in a word it will be marmelad.* …*Translator’s Note: A kind <strong>of</strong> sweetmeat made by boiling down fruitto the consistency <strong>of</strong> damson cheese.277

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