Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchDecember 3.This morning an individual sent by Prince Urusov turned up andasked me for a short story for a sporting magazine edited by the saidPrince. I refused, of course, as I now refuse all who come with supplicationsto the foot of my pedestal. In Russia there are now twounattainable heights: Mount Elborus and myself.The Prince’s envoy was deeply disappointed by my refusal, nearlydied of grief, and finally begged me to recommend him some writerswho are versed in sport. I thought a little, and very opportunelyremembered a lady writer who dreams of glory and has for the lastyear been ill with envy of my literary fame. In short, I gave himyour address …. You might write a story “The Wounded Doe”—you remember, how the huntsmen wound a doe; she looks at themwith human eyes, and no one can bring himself to kill her. It’s not abad subject, but dangerous because it is difficult to avoid sentimentality—youmust write it like a report, without pathetic phrases,and begin like this: “On such and such a date the huntsmen in theDaraganov forest wounded a young doe ….” And if you drop a tearyou will strip the subject of its severity and of everything worthattention in it.44