Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO V. M. SOBOLEVSKY.YALTA, January 19, 1900.DEAR VASSILY MIHAILOVITCH,In November I wrote a story* fully intending to send it to RusskiyaVyedomosti, but the story lengthened out beyond the sixteen pages,and I had to send it elsewhere. Then Elpatyevsky and I decided tosend you a telegram on New Year’s Eve, but there was such a rushand a whirl that we let the right moment slip, and now I send youmy New Year wishes. Forgive me my many transgressions. You knowhow deeply I love and respect you, and if the intervals in our correspondenceare prolonged it’s merely external causes that are to blame.I am alive and almost well. I am often ill, but not for long at atime; and I haven’t once been kept in bed this winter, I keep aboutthough I am ill. I am working harder than I did last year, and I ammore bored. It’s bad being without Russia in every way.... All theevergreen trees look as though they were made of tin, and one getsno joy out of them. And one sees nothing interesting, as one has notaste for the local life.Elpatyevsky and Kondakov are here. The former has run up ahuge house for himself which towers above all Yalta; the latter isgoing to Petersburg to take his seat in the Academy—and is glad togo. Elpatyevsky is cheerful and hearty, always in good spirits, goesout in all weathers, in a summer overcoat; Kondakov is irritablysarcastic, and goes about in a fur coat. Both often come and see meand we speak of you.V. A. wrote that she had bought a piece of land in Tuapse. Oy-oy!but the boredom there is awful, you know. There are Tchetchentsiand scorpions, and worst of all there are no roads, and there won’tbe any for a long time. Of all warm places in Russia the best are onthe south coast of the Crimea, there is no doubt of that, whateverthey may say about the natural beauties of the Caucasus. I havebeen lately to Gurzufa, near Pushkin’s rock, and admired the view,although it rained and although I am sick to death of views. In the*“In the Ravine.”385