Status Updates From Letters of Anton Chekhov to...

But one thing
I don't like: why do you style yourself "your worthless and insignificant brother"? You recognize
your insignificance? . . . Recognize it before
God; perhaps, too, in the presence of beauty, intelligence, nature, but not before men. Among men
you must be conscious of your dignity.

Olga,who has grown fatter & stronger in the summer,will probably come to Moscow on Sunday. I shall remain alone,& of course shall take advantage of that. As a writer it is essential for me to observe women, to study them,& so, I regret to say, I cannot be a faithful husband. As I observe women chiefly for the sake of my plays,in my opinion the Art Theatre ought to increase my wife's salary or give her a pension!

...As I am soon coming to Moscow, please keep a ticket for me for "The Pillars of Society"; I want to see the marvellous Norwegian acting, and I will even pay for my seat. You know Ibsen is my favourite writer…

Thank you for your good wishes in regard to my marriage. I have informed my fiancee of your design of coming to Yalta in order to cut her out a little. She said that if "that horrid woman" comes to Yalta, she will hold me tight in her embrace. I observed that to be embraced for so long in hot weather was not hygienic...

Here in this blessed Yalta one could hardly keep alive without letters. The idleness, the idiotic winter with the temperature always above freezing-point, the complete absence of interesting women, the pig-faces on the sea-front—all this may spoil a man and wear him out in a very short time. I am tired of it; it seems to me as though the winter had been going on for ten years.