To K. S. Barantsevich, 15 December 1887. Petersburg.

1 A short note of 15 December 1887, written from Petersburg to the writer Kazimir Stanislavovich Barantsevich, a minor prose author of the day whom Chekhov knew socially through the capital’s literary and humor-magazine circles. Chekhov apologizes for not having managed to call on him during his visit, gives his Moscow address, and announces that he is leaving that same evening.

2 The bulk of the letter is a last-minute invitation: between five and six o’clock, before his departure, Chekhov will be receiving several fellow writers from the Petersburg humor press – I. L. Leontyev (who wrote under the pen name Shcheglov), Viktor Bilibin, and Nikolai Leikin, the editor of Oskolki – and he urges Barantsevich to join them. The letter closes with a half-joking promise to visit ten times over if Barantsevich comes now, followed by a brisk postscript proposing they dine together.