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Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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<strong>Letters</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Anton</strong> <strong>Chekhov</strong> to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO GORKY.YALTA, February 15, 1900.DEAR ALEXEY MAXIMOVITCH,Your article in the Nizhni-Novgorod Listok was balm to my soul.What a talented person you are! I can’t write anything but belleslettres,you possess the pen <strong>of</strong> a journalist as well. I thought at firstI liked the article so much because you praise me in it; afterwards itcame out that Sredin and his family and Yartsev were all delightedwith it. So peg away at journalism. God bless you!Why don’t they send me “Foma Gordeyev”? I have read it only inbits, and one ought to read it straight through at a sitting as I havejust read “Resurrection.” Except the relations <strong>of</strong> Nehludov andKatusha, which are somewhat obscure and made up, everything inthe novel made the impression <strong>of</strong> strength, richness, and breadth,and the insincerity <strong>of</strong> a man afraid <strong>of</strong> death and refusing to admit itand clutching at texts and holy Scripture.Write to them to send me “Foma.”“Twenty-six Men and a Girl” is a good story. There is a strongfeeling <strong>of</strong> the environment. One smells the hot rolls.They have just brought your letter. So you don’t want to go toIndia? That’s a pity. When India is in the past, a long sea voyage,you have something to think about when you can’t get to sleep. Anda tour abroad takes very little time, it need not prevent your goingabout in Russia on foot.I am bored, not in the sense <strong>of</strong> weltschmerz, not in the sense <strong>of</strong>being weary <strong>of</strong> existence, but simply bored from want <strong>of</strong> people,from want <strong>of</strong> music which I love, and from want <strong>of</strong> women, <strong>of</strong>whom there are none in Yalta. I am bored without caviare and pickledcabbage.I am very sorry that apparently you have given up the idea <strong>of</strong>coming to Yalta. The Art Theatre from Moscow will be here in May.It will give five performances and then remain for rehearsals. So youcome, study the stage at the rehearsals, and then in five to eight dayswrite a play, which I should welcome joyfully with my whole heart.Yes, I have the right now to insist on the fact that I am forty, that400

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