To Al. P. Chekhov, 18–24 April 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow between 18 and 24 April 1888 to Chekhov’s older brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, who at the time managed some of Chekhov’s practical affairs in Petersburg, including dealings with the publisher Alexei Suvorin’s bookshop.

2 A blistering, mock-furious scolding letter. Chekhov opens by mocking his brother for mishandling a small sum of money and for deferring to the shop rather than simply printing his story collection "Twilight." He then vents at length about Suvorin’s bookshop failing to stock his book despite demand, and pointedly takes the matter out of his brother’s hands, saying he will deal with the agency himself. He mentions that their father ("the old man") will soon be in Moscow and jokes about having him run Alexander off. He asks pointed medical questions about the illness of a woman referred to by initials, A. I., wondering whether a suspected abscess is liver-related and pressing for a real diagnosis in place of the tuberculosis one already given. He closes with travel news – the family’s move south to the Lintvaryov estate near Sumy on 5 May, his brother Mikhail’s departure, and his plan to write only minor work over the summer – before signing off with a mock-punitive close and a comic pseudonym, "Blagorodnov" ("Mr. Noble-Man").

3 Disambiguate section 5 from section 6: "the old man" (Старичина) in section 5 is a third party (their father) whom Chekhov jokes will discipline the addressee – it is not a direct address to the brother. In section 6, "A. I." is a separate third party, a woman whose illness is under discussion (feminine verb forms in the Russian make clear the patient is female); she is not the addressee and not the same person as "the old man." Keep both references distinct from the letter’s addressee, Alexander P. Chekhov, who is the "you" throughout the scolding passages.