work

An Attack of Nerves

"An Attack of Nerves"

also: Припадок, Pripadok, The Attack, A Nervous Breakdown

Chekhov's story written for the Garshin memorial collection, following the law student Vasilyev through a night's tour of the brothels of S-- Lane with two friends and his subsequent nervous breakdown, treated by the psychiatrist Mikhail Sergeich. Its subject and progress are tracked across the autumn 1888 correspondence: first referenced without title as Chekhov's contribution to "the Garshin memorial collection" in letter 3-500 (to Suvorin), and here in letter 3-519 named directly for the first time within the body of a letter, with Chekhov's own account of its setting (Sobolev Lane, thinly veiled as "S-- Lane" in the finished story) and his declared method of treating the subject "cautiously, without raking up the filth or using strong language."

Reading notes

To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 3 November 1888. Moscow. §7 "An Attack of Nerves"
"Припадок" ("An Attack of Nerves"), newly catalogued as on the strength of this letter, which is its first appearance under that title within the body of a letter (rather than only in an editorial headnote gloss); the story was first referenced, without title, as Chekhov's contribution to "the Garshin collection" in letter 3-500 (to Suvorin). Chekhov's own account here of the story's setting and his treatment of it is unique authorial testimony about the work's genesis.
To I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov, 17 September 1891. Moscow. §3 "The Attack"
"Pripadok" (Припадок, 1888; also translated "An Attack of Nerves" or "A Nervous Breakdown"), Chekhov's story of a law student's nervous collapse after a night touring Moscow's brothels, written for the Garshin memorial collection and later included in the story collection "Gloomy People." Chekhov flags its two prior appearances so Gorbunov-Posadov can judge whether a Posrednik reprint would be redundant, then gives his consent.