To F. O. Shekhtel, 19 October 1886. Moscow.

1 Written on 19 October 1886 in Moscow to Franz Osipovich Schechtel (Fyodor Shekhtel), the architect who was one of Chekhov’s closest friends from his youth. In mock-legal, mock-commercial language, Chekhov begs a loan of 25–50 rubles, casting himself comically as the failing firm "Doctor A. P. Chekhov and Co." and promising repayment by every absurd means he can invent – promissory note, telephone, check, or, failing all else, via his brother Nikolai after his own death. He closes by sending his younger brother Mikhail ("Misha") to collect the money in person.

2 A brief, high-spirited example of Chekhov’s comic epistolary style in the mid-1880s, when he was supporting his family on meager income from magazine writing while training as a physician. The letter shows his fondness for absurdist role-play, invented pseudo-medical coinages, and teasing affection toward friends – qualities that recur throughout his correspondence with Schechtel and mark this period just before his literary reputation began to solidify.