work
Stories from the Life of My Friends
also: Рассказы из жизни моих друзей, мой роман, the novel
Chekhov's long-gestating, ultimately unfinished and unpublished novel project of 1888-89, conceived as a cycle of separate, self-contained but tightly interlinked stories rather than a conventional continuous novel. Given its title here for the first time in this run of correspondence (elsewhere, e.g. and, discussed as "my novel"/"the novel" without a title). Chekhov reports having sketched nine character "physiognomies" and defends a student character against Grigorovich's objection that he is superfluous.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 11 March 1889. Moscow. §5 "Stories from the Life of My Friends"
Chekhov's long-gestating, ultimately unfinished/unpublished novel project of 1888-89, here given a title for the first time in this run of correspondence -- elsewhere (both from the same week) discussed only as "my novel"/"the novel" without a title. Conceived as a cycle of separate, self-contained stories tightly bound by common intrigue, idea, and characters rather than a conventional continuous narrative.
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 9 April 1889. Moscow. §6 The novel
Chekhov's long-gestating, ultimately unfinished and unpublished novel project, first given its title in this run of correspondence at (see also); this letter's description of it running "aground to await the tide" and being dedicated to Pleshcheyev matches the same project discussed there. No title is given in this letter itself, consistent with the earlier entries' pattern of referring to it only as "the novel"/"my novel."