To M. V. Kiseleva, 7–8 July 1887. Babkino.

1 Written 6, 7, or 8 July 1887 at Babkino, the country estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhov family spent several summers as guests of the Kiselev family. The addressee, Maria Vladimirovna Kiseleva, was the lady of the house, a family friend of literary ambitions who dabbled in writing fiction for children and occasionally sought Chekhov’s professional opinion of her work; he had by 1887 the established habit of reading her drafts and answering with blunt, joking literary criticism.

2 The letter is a compact piece of editorial banter: Chekhov gives a brief verdict on Kiseleva’s story "Agnia," judging it imperfect in style but genuine and worth more than a rival piece he calls "Stray Bullets," then brushes off some offer of intercession with an editor named Istomin with a dry joke about brides and bad journals. The closing lines pivot into a short, morbid quip – turning the title "Stray Bullets" back on itself as a mock remedy for toothache and lovesickness – followed by a curt dismissal of another character or manuscript, "Vasilisa," that Chekhov declines to take on. The whole note displays Chekhov’s characteristic mode with Kiseleva: affectionate, unsparing, and compressed into a handful of lines.