Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchMOSCOW, April 1, 1897.The doctors have diagnosed tuberculosis in the upper part of thelungs, and have ordered me to change my manner of life. I understandtheir diagnosis but I don’t understand their prescription, becauseit is almost impossible. They tell me I must live in the country,but you know living permanently in the country involves continualworry with peasants, with animals, with elementary forces ofall kinds, and to escape from worries and anxieties in the country isas difficult as to escape burns in hell. But still I will try to change mylife as far as possible, and have already, through Masha, announcedthat I shall give up medical practice in the country. This will be atthe same time a great relief and a great deprivation to me. I shalldrop all public duties in the district, shall buy a dressing-gown, baskin the sun, and eat a great deal. They tell me to eat six times a dayand are indignant with me for eating, as they think, very little. I amforbidden to talk much, to swim, and so on, and so on.Except my lungs, all my organs were found to be healthy. HithertoI fancied I drank just so much as not to do harm; now it turnsout on investigation that I was drinking less than I was entitled to.What a pity!The author of “Ward No. 6” has been moved from Ward No. 16to Ward No. 14. There is plenty of room here, two windows, lightinga la Potapenko, three tables. There is very little haemorrhage.After the evening when Tolstoy was here (we talked for a long time)at four o’clock in the morning I had violent haemorrhage again.Melihovo is a healthy place; it stands exactly on a watershed, onhigh ground, so that there is never fever or diphtheria in it. Theyhave decided, after general consultation, that I am not to go awayanywhere but to go on living at Melihovo. I must only arrange thehouse somewhat more comfortably ….350
Anton ChekhovMOSCOW, April 7, 1897.… You write that my ideal is laziness. No, it is not laziness. Idespise laziness as I despise weakness and lack of mental and moralenergy. I was not talking of laziness but of leisure, and I did not sayleisure was an ideal but only one of the essential conditions of personalhappiness.If the experiments with Koch’s new serum give favourable results,I shall go of course to Berlin. Feeding is absolutely no use to me.Here for the last fortnight they have been feeding me zealously, butit’s no use, I have not gained weight.I ought to get married. Perhaps a cross wife would cut down thenumber of my visitors by at least a half. Yesterday they were comingall day long, it was simply awful. They came two at a time—andeach one begs me not to speak and at the same time asks me questions….351
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Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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