place
De Castries
also: де Кастри, de Kastri
A bay and settlement on the Tatar Strait coast of the Russian Far East, on Chekhov's planned Sakhalin itinerary; here the subject of a comic aside about gorging on outsized oysters unknown in Europe.
Reading notes
- To I. L. Leontyev, 16 March 1890. Moscow. §6 at De Castries swallow oysters, fat, enormous ones, the like of which they do not know in Europe
De Castries (де Кастри) is a bay and settlement on the Tatar Strait coast of the Russian Far East, on the sea route toward Sakhalin; Chekhov's oyster boast belongs to the same register as the sterlet-gorging promise on the Amur and the discount bearskin coats -- half-genuine travelers' anticipation, half comic excess, aimed at making the grim itinerary (bears, convicts, typhoons) sound instead like an appetite for adventure.