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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 MADAME AVILOV.MELIHOVO, March 19, 1892.HONOURED LIDYA ALEXYEVNA,I have read your story “On the Road.” If I were the editor <strong>of</strong> anillustrated magazine, I should publish the story with great pleasure;but here is my advice as a reader: when you depict sad or unluckypeople, and want to touch the reader’s heart, try to be colder—itgives their grief as it were a background, against which it stands outin greater relief. As it is, your heroes weep and you sigh. Yes, youmust be cold.But don’t listen to me, I am a bad critic. I have not the faculty <strong>of</strong>forming my critical ideas clearly. Sometimes I make a regular hash<strong>of</strong> it ….297

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