Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchbox-like hotels in which unhappy consumptives are pining, theimpudent Tatar faces, the ladies’ bustles with their very undisguisedexpression of something very abominable, the faces of the idle rich,longing for cheap adventures, the smell of perfumery instead of thescent of the cedars and the sea, the miserable dirty pier, the melancholylights far out at sea, the prattle of young ladies and gentlemenwho have crowded here in order to admire nature of which theyhave no idea—all this taken together produces such a depressingeffect and is so overwhelming that one begins to blame oneself forbeing biassed and unfair …. At five o’clock in the morning I arrivedat Feodosia—a greyish-brown, dismal, and dull-looking little town.There is no grass, the trees are wretched, the soil is coarse and hopelesslypoor. Everything is burnt up by the sun, and only the seasmiles—the sea which has nothing to do with wretched little townsor tourists. Sea bathing is so nice that when I got into the water Ibegan to laugh for no reason at all ….84