Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO F. D. BATYUSHKOV.YALTA, January 24, 1900.MUCH RESPECTED F. D.,Roche asks me to send him the passages from “Peasants” whichwere cut out by the Censor, but there were no such passages. Thereis one chapter which has not appeared in the magazine, nor in thebook. It was a conversation of the peasants about religion and government.But there is no need to send that chapter to Paris, as indeedthere was no need to translate “Peasants” into French at all.I thank you most sincerely for the photograph; Ryepin’s illustrationis an honour I had not expected or dreamed of. It will be verypleasant to have the original; tell Ilya Efimovitch* that I shall expectit with impatience, and that he cannot change his mind now, as Ihave already bequeathed the original to the town of Taganrog—inwhich, by the way, I was born.In your letter you speak of Gorky: how do you like Gorky? I don’tlike everything he writes, but there are things I like very, very much,and to my mind there is not a shadow of doubt that Gorky is madeof the dough of which artists are made. He is the real thing. He’s afine man, clever, thinking, and thoughtful. But there is a lot of unnecessaryballast upon him and in him—for example, his provincialism….Thanks very much for your letter, for remembering me. I am dullhere, I am sick of it, and I have a feeling as though I have beenthrown overboard. And the weather’s bad too, and I am not well. Istill go on coughing. All good wishes.*Ryepin, who was, at the request of Roche, the French translator,illustrating the French edition of Chekhov’s “Peasants.”389