The Steppe

Reading notes

• To V. G. Korolenko, 9 January 1888. Moscow. §7 a little tale

  The novella that became "The Steppe," Chekhov's first sustained long-form fiction, written at Korolenko's encouragement; this letter captures Chekhov mid-composition, worried that his habit of writing in compact, self-contained pages is fragmenting the larger picture rather than building it.

• To Ya. P. Polonsky, 18 January 1888. Moscow. §9 little novella

  The work in progress is "The Steppe," Chekhov's first sustained long-form fiction, which he here describes with characteristic self-doubt as cumbersome, tedious, and too specialized -- a judgment posterity has not shared.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 19 January 1888. Moscow. §7 I am describing the steppe

  An early progress report on the novella that would become "The Steppe," still unnamed here and referred to only by its subject matter; Chekhov's mixed confidence and self-doubt about it recur across his January 1888 correspondence.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 22 January 1888. Moscow. §10 My novella will come out in the March issue of "Severny Vestnik"

  "The Steppe," Chekhov's breakthrough long-form novella, at this point close to finished; his remark that "it has no love story in it" is characteristic self-deprecation about a work that would in fact establish his literary reputation.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 23 January 1888. Moscow. §3 Steppe

  Chekhov's novella-in-progress, his first sustained long work, written for the "thick journal" "Severny Vestnik" and due within days of this letter.

• Georgy M. Gusopoulo, January 29, 1888. Moscow. §2 a long novella for "Severny Vestnik"

  The work in progress is "The Steppe," which Chekhov was racing to finish for the March 1888 issue of Severny Vestnik; see the fuller progress reports in his letters to Grigorovich and Polonsky from the same weeks.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 3 February 1888. Moscow. §5 "The Steppe"

  Chekhov's novella, his first sustained long-form fiction, written for Severny Vestnik and finished the day of this letter; it would be serialized there in March 1888.

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 3 February 1888. Moscow. §6 a novella

  The unnamed "novella" is "The Steppe," finished and sent off the day before this letter, due to appear in "Severny Vestnik" in March 1888 -- Chekhov's first sustained long-form fiction, discussed at more length in his contemporary letters to Korolenko and Polonsky.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 4 February 1888. Moscow. §3 I finished "The Steppe" yesterday and sent it off to "Severny Vestnik."

  Chekhov's novella "The Steppe," his first sustained long-form fiction and debut in a serious "fat journal" rather than the comic weeklies; he had been drafting and worrying over it in letters throughout January 1888, and here reports it finished and dispatched to the St. Petersburg monthly Severny Vestnik, where it would appear in March.

• To D. V. Grigorovich, 5 February 1888. Moscow. §3 my "Steppe"

  Chekhov's novella, his first sustained long-form fiction, finished and dispatched to "Severny Vestnik" just before this letter was written.

• To D. V. Grigorovich, 5 February 1888. Moscow. §5 a nine-year-old boy

  Yegorushka, the child protagonist who recurs through all eight chapters of "The Steppe"; Chekhov distinguishes this fictional nine-year-old, whom he says he is bound to bring to a bad end in Petersburg or Moscow, from the real seventeen-year-old suicide Grigorovich had described to him.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 5 February 1888. Moscow. §4 "Steppe"

  The novella that would become "The Steppe," sent to Pleshcheev by registered wrapper mail the day before this letter, in hopes it would reach "Severny Vestnik" in time for the March 1888 issue.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 9 February 1888. Moscow. §4 "The Steppe"

  Chekhov's novella, just finished and sent to Pleshcheev in the letter of February 3; the subject of the fee discussion running through this section.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 9 February 1888. Moscow. §5 print "The Steppe" entire

  Pleshcheev's promise, reported here, echoes Chekhov's own earlier request (in the letter sending the manuscript) that the novella run in a single issue rather than be serialized in parts.

• To Ya. P. Polonsky, 22 February 1888. Moscow. §4 "The Steppe"

  Chekhov's novella "The Steppe," completed shortly before this letter and about to appear in Severny Vestnik in March 1888; he describes the toll it took on his energy.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 23 February 1888. Moscow. §4 оттиска моей "Степи"

  The proofs of Chekhov's novella "The Steppe," then in production for its March 1888 appearance in Severny Vestnik.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 6 March 1888. Moscow. §3 "Steppe"

  Chekhov's long story, published earlier that month, which brought him his first serious critical attention as a literary artist.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 16 March 1888. Petersburg. §7 my "Steppe"

  Chekhov's novella "The Steppe," recently published, the talk of literary Petersburg during his visit.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 31 March 1888. Moscow. §17 Steppe

  Chekhov's novella, serialized in Severny Vestnik in early 1888; he claims here that it, too, wore Aristarkhov out, though the critic would never admit it amid other critics' praise.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 4 April 1888. Moscow. §6 "The Steppe"

  Chekhov's novella, serialized in Severny Vestnik in early 1888; he asks Shcheglov to forward any published reviews, including unfavorable ones.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 18 April 1888. Moscow. §3 "The Steppe"

  Chekhov's own novella, then newly out in Severny Vestnik; the review Chekhov mentions had called it "pantheist," a label he passes along with mock solemnity.