place
Devichye Pole
also: Девичье поле, Maidens' Field
A district in Moscow near the Novodevichy Convent, on the city's southwestern edge and at this date still relatively cheap and semi-rural; the Chekhov family considers moving there in autumn 1891 to save money on rent.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 8 September 1891. Moscow. §3 Devichye Pole
The district near the Novodevichy Convent on Moscow's southwestern edge, at this date still cheap enough that the family considers it purely to cut the rent; Chekhov's studied indifference to the move ("I say nothing, since I'm too lazy to turn around") is characteristic of how little domestic logistics interested him compared to work, and stands in the letter as the flat, practical prelude before the paragraph shifts to literature and mortality.