A Visit to Friends
First published in the journal Cosmopolis, 1898, and written at the request of F. D. Batyushkov (1857–1920; literary historian and critic, editor of Russian section of Cosmopolis. Author of interesting memoirs and articles about Chekhov). From Nice, Chekhov wrote to Batyushkov: ‘I promise to write a story for Cosmopolis at the first opportunity and if nothing gets in the way I’ll send it in December.’ (letter of 9 November 1897).
In December he wrote a highly interesting letter from Nice to Batyushkov which throws much light on his creative methods: ‘I’m writing the story for Cosmopolis, slowly, in fits and starts. I usually write slowly, with much effort, but here, in a hotel room, at a strange table, in good weather, when I yearn to go out, I write even worse… and therefore I can’t promise the story earlier than in two weeks. I’ll send it before 1 January… You expressed the wish… for me to send an international story, with a subject from the local life here. I can only write such stories in Russia, from memory. I can write only from memory and have never written direct from nature. My memory has to sieve the subject so that only what’s important or typical is left on it, as on a filter’ (letter of 15 December 1897).
Early the following year he wrote to the sociologist M. M. Kovalevsky: ‘I sent a story to Cosmopolis and have already received a thank-you telegram from the editor, although the story isn’t quite right – rather poor, I think’ (letter of 8 January 1898).
‘A Visit to Friends’ was the only late story of Chekhov’s to be excluded from the Collected Edition – for some reason he took a dislike to it.
1. Tula: Large town about 120 miles south of Moscow, famous for the manufacture of guns and samovars. Peter the Great established a small-arms factory there in 1712. The gunsmiths were renowned for the quality of their workmanship.
2. Slav Fair: See ‘Peasants’, note 1, p. 333.
3. Hermitage: Restaurant in Trubny Place in Moscow.
4. Little Bronny Street: See ‘Peasants’, note 21, p. 334.
5. Is something rotten in the state of Denmark?: Cf. Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’.
6. Ufa: Capital of Bashkir Autonomous Republic, on Belaya River, near the Urals.
7. Perm: Large city on River Kama, in western Urals. An important cultural and industrial centre.
8. The line runs straight… : From N. A. Nekrasov’s The Railway (1865); also the following excerpts. The poem is full of strong civic protest.
9. Before he had time to groan… : From the fable The Peasant and the Workman (1815), by I. A. Krylov.
10. ‘And thou shalt be que-een of the world’: From the opera The Demon, by A. G. Rubinstein, based on Lermontov’s famous narrative poem (1841).
Ionych
‘Ionych’ was first published in the Monthly Literary Supplement to the Journal The Cornfield in 1898. Chekhov completed this story at Melikhovo in about one month. Previously it had been thought that ‘Ionych’ had originally been intended for Russian Thought and then taken back, but this has been shown to refer to another story.
On 13 March 1898 Chekhov wrote from Nice to Y. O. Gryunberg, managing editor of A. F. Marks’ publishing house and of the journal The Cornfield: ‘I’ll send the story without delay, but not before I return home. Here I can’t write, I’ve grown lazy. I’m going to Paris around 5–10 April and then back home… in May or June probably I’ll be able to write for The Cornfield.’
According to Mikhail Chekhov the cemetery in the story is based on that in Taganrog, together with other details from Chekhov’s earlier life in the provincial town (A. P. Chekhov and His Subjects, Moscow, 1923).
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1. ’Ere I had drunk from life’s cup of tears: From the poem Elegy (1821) by Anton Delvig (1798–1831), a close friend of Pushkin. The poem was set to music by M. L. Yakovlev, a friend of Delvig’s.
2. ‘Die now Denis, you’ll never write better!’: Words attributed to Prince Potyomkin after seeing the first performance of Denis Fonvizin’s satirical comedy The Minor (1782). The same quotation also appears in Dostoyevsky’s Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863).
3. Thy voice for me is dear and languorous: Line from Pushkin’s Night (1823), slightly altered. The original reads: ‘My voice for thee is dear and languorous.’ The poem was set to music by A. G. Rubinstein, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky.
4. Pisemsky: Aleksey Feofilaktovich (1821–81). Novelist. His A Thousand Souls (1858) is an entertaining satirical novel about the rise and fall of an ambitious young man from the provinces. The requisite number of serfs for a landowner to be considered wealthy was one thousand. The shortened version of the patronymic is conversational.
5. The cemetery: Possibly the cemetery in Chekhov’s native town of Taganrog, or Feodosiya. Chekhov was very fond of wandering around cemeteries.
6. ‘The hour is coming when…’: John 5:28. The full verse is: ‘For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.’
My Life
‘My Life’ was first published in the Monthly Literary Supplement to the Journal The Cornfield in 1896 and subsequently published by Suvorin as a separate volume (together with ‘Peasants’) in 1897.
On 11 July 1895 Chekhov was invited by the editor of The Cornfield, A. A. Tikhonov (pseudonym A. Lugovoy), to contribute to the journal and he accepted. The first definite indication that work on the story had begun is given in a letter to I. M. Potapenko (1856–1928; writer and close friend of Chekhov after 1893): ‘I’m writing a novel for The Cornfield…’; and shortly afterwards he added: ‘I think it will be called “My Marriage”… I can’t say for certain yet… the subject’s from the life of the provincial intelligentsia.’ On 16 June he sent the first nine chapters to Lugovoy, which he did not consider as final, for he asked for them to be returned after being read: ‘I’ll have to correct a great deal, since it’s not a story yet, only a crudely constructed framework that I’ll whitewash and paint when I finish the building.’ On 11 July he told Suvorin that the story was nearly finished and it was sent to the editors on 10 August. The following day Chekhov confessed to M. O. Menshikov: ‘A big story, exhausting, and hellishly boring.’
After the Coronation of Nicholas II there had been a great increase in the number of workers’ strikes and Lugovoy expected a more oppressive regime, with a harder line from the censors. Moreover, at this time a new censor had been appointed, which did not bode well. Therefore Lugovoy suggested that the first and ‘safest’ five chapters be printed in the October issue of The Cornfield, hoping to ‘lull the censor’s vigilance’. As it happened nothing was excised in these chapters. Lugovoy, however, foresaw problems with the continuation, especially in the sixth chapter with its discussion about social progress, and told Chekhov to ‘tone down’ a few details – for example, the father beating the son, and the son of a general’s wife fighting with her lover. In particular, Lugovoy, who had great experience of the censors’ methods, advised Chekhov to be especially careful with the last chapter.