To A. S. Suvorin, 5–6 October 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 5 or 6 October 1888 to Alexei Suvorin, this is a short, miscellaneous letter of the same October run of correspondence as Chekhov’s 2 October letter to Suvorin and his 4 October letter to Pleshcheyev: all touch on Ivan Shcheglov’s play "The Summer Husband" and its aftermath at Korsh’s theater. Chekhov opens by promising to reassure Fyodor Korsh (the Moscow theater manager from the previous letter’s comic set-piece) and advises Suvorin against ever buying a theater of his own, sketching instead a fantasy of Suvorin moving his whole operation south, complete with a steamship named after Suvorin’s newspaper "Novoye Vremya" ("New Times").

2 He reports that Shcheglov ("Jean") is still brooding over "The Summer Husband" and will soon visit Suvorin in person. He then relays a message for the writer Alexei Maslov (pen name "Bezhetsky"): an unflattering notice about Maslov’s book in "Severny Vestnik" was not the doing of the journal’s women editors, including Anna Yevreinova, and Chekhov adds a sharp aside about the state of Moscow’s literary press, particularly "Russkaya Mysl" ("Russian Thought"). He then gives a diagnosis and practical medical advice for the ailing Viktor Burenin (referred to here by name and patronymic, "Viktor Petrovich"), the "New Times" critic, regarding his articular rheumatism – drawing on his own training as a physician. He reports extensive revisions to his play "Ivanov," sends family regards, mentions a review he wants to write of Alexander Lensky’s performance as Othello (having heard from Shcheglov, who has seen the touring Italian actor Tommaso Salvini’s Othello six times, that Lensky’s is good), sends further regards to Suvorin’s household, and closes with two short lines: a promise to write only letters that don’t require a reply, and a remark that Suvorin’s son has still not arrived.