To P. G. Rozanov, 14 January 1886. Moscow.

1 This short, breezy letter of 14 January 1886 is addressed to Pavel Grigoryevich Rozanov, a physician and friend of Chekhov’s from Voskresensk, who had married shortly before. Writing the day after Tatyana’s Day (a traditional Moscow student holiday and occasion for hard drinking), Chekhov describes a night of carousing through the Hermitage restaurant, Welde’s, and the Salon that left him broke, disheveled, and newly convinced of the virtues of marriage. He passes along family greetings, jokes about the domestic "symptoms" of married life, complains good-naturedly about the burden of attending three more weddings, and reminds Rozanov about a manuscript for the journal "The Feldsher" (Fel’dsher), signing off in haste.

2 The letter is a good example of Chekhov’s early comic epistolary voice – rapid-fire, self-deprecating, full of private jokes and topical references – written at 25, just as he was beginning to balance his medical career, journalism, and literary ambitions. It offers a glimpse of his social circle and the light, teasing tone he took with old friends from his Voskresensk days.