Kashtanka

Reading notes

• To M. P. Chekhov, 16 March 1888. Petersburg. §11 a story about Kashtanka

  A bare title-reference to Chekhov's own 1887 novella "Kashtanka," cited here only as the reason the Suvorin children regard him as a genius; this letter's apparatus does not translate or represent the story itself.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 April 1888. Moscow. §4 "Kashtanka"

  Chekhov's 1887 novella, then being prepared as an illustrated edition; he redirects his hopes for handsome production values to it after deciding to economize on the paper for his forthcoming collection.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 October 1888. Moscow. §3 "Kashtanka"

  Chekhov's 1887 novella; the inspector buys a copy for 200 roubles "so as to 'turn a profit'" -- Chekhov's own wry, slightly cynical aside about opportunism cashing in on his sudden fame, not editorializing added in translation.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 24 October 1888. Moscow. §4 I've ordered drawings for "Kashtanka."

  Chekhov's 1887 novella, already well established in this corpus (see the headnotes to, and); this letter documents a concrete production detail -- Chekhov commissioning illustrations for a book edition -- rather than discussing the story itself.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 30 August 1891. Bogimovo. §11 And what of "Kashtanka"? In the three years it's been lying with you, I could have earned three thousand.

  "Kashtanka", Chekhov's 1887 novella about a lost circus dog, had by this point been sitting with Suvorin -- evidently held back from separate publication as a standalone illustrated edition -- for roughly three years; the complaint is only half-serious (Chekhov's arithmetic of lost earnings is a rhetorical flourish, not a real accounting), but reflects a genuine, recurring impatience in the Suvorin correspondence with slow-moving publication plans for his back catalogue.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 16 October 1891. Moscow. §12 Shall I remind You about "Kashtanka,"

  "Kashtanka," Chekhov's 1887 story of a lost dog adopted by a circus performer, popular with younger readers ("childhood and youth" in the next sentence). Chekhov is noncommittal here about whether it is worth reprinting, leaving the decision to Suvorin.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 22 November 1891. Moscow. §6 "Kashtanka"

  Chekhov's 1887 novella about a lost dog taken in by a circus performer, at this point still sitting with Suvorin's firm pending a separate illustrated edition; Chekhov had voiced the same impatience about its earnings three months earlier in (\S11: "In the three years it's been lying with you, I could have earned three thousand"), and here pushes back on what reads as Suvorin's skepticism that the book will earn him anything at all.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 3 December 1891. Moscow. §3 Kashtanka

  Chekhov reports having received proofs of the novella, expanded it from 4 chapters to 7, and cut a subplot involving an unfaithful wife and a family friend -- concrete evidence of the story's revision history between its first serial appearance and book publication. The corrected proofs are to be forwarded to Neupokoyev at Suvorin's printing house.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 4 December 1891. Moscow. §5 Did you receive the proofs of "Kashtanka"?

  A brief, practical follow-up query. The previous day's letter to Suvorin (3 December 1891, \S3) reports at length on the proofs already in hand -- corrections made, a new chapter added (expanding the tale from 4 chapters to 7), the household-friend-and-unfaithful-wife subplot cut, and the proofs forwarded on to Neupokoyev. This terse one-line question the following day -- whether the proofs (a further batch, or confirmation the prior parcel arrived) reached Suvorin -- continues that same production thread in miniature.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 15 December 1891. Moscow. §8 "Kashtanka"

  Chekhov's novella, then forthcoming in book form; he notes with mild disappointment that it still has not come out and so will miss the holiday, continuing the production/proofing thread developed at (proofs corrected, expanded from 4 to 7 chapters).

• To the Chekhovs, 31 December 1891. Petersburg. §10 "Kashtanka" is with the censor

  Chekhov's 1887 novella, first attested at, here noted in a one-line postscript as currently before the censor -- consistent with preparations, in this period, for a revised or illustrated edition; no further detail on the specific submission is given in the letter.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 22 January 1892. Moscow. §6 Дома у себя нашел я корректуру "Каштанки"

  Chekhov's 1887 novella about a lost dog, then in proof for a new illustrated edition. His complaint here (offering to pay the artist extra just to be rid of the drawings -- stools, a goose laying an egg, a bulldog substituted for a dachshund) anticipates the more detailed, calmer assessment of the illustrator Stepanov's work recorded elsewhere in this corpus; here the tone is pure exasperation at a first look, before any of that nuance.

• To Ye. M. Shavrova, 6 March 1891. Moscow. §8 "Kashtanka"

  Chekhov's own 1887 novella about a lost dog; he disclaims any knowledge of what Shavrova means by mentioning it, suggesting a mix-up or a private joke of hers that has not survived independently of this letter.

• To Ye. M. Shavrova, 8 March 1891. Moscow. §6 "Kashtanka"

  Ambiguous title clash: Shavrova appears to have used the same title as Chekhov's own well-known 1887 novella. His follow-up letter of 6 March makes the confusion explicit -- "What 'Kashtanka' are you writing about? I have no such story" -- suggesting this is a separate, unrelated Shavrova manuscript rather than any reference to his own tale; the entity link here is provisional, marking the title-form only, not an identity claim.