To I. L. Leontyev, 2 November 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 2 November 1888 to Ivan Leontyev, who wrote under the pen name Ivan Shcheglov and whom Chekhov addressed by the nickname "Jean," this short letter is a friendly, business-inflected follow-up in the same run of correspondence as the letter to Shcheglov of 14 September and the letter to Alexei Suvorin of 2 October, which gives Chekhov’s harsh review of Shcheglov’s play "The Summer Husband" at Korsh’s theater. Here, a month later, Chekhov reports on the fortunes of his own one-act farce "The Bear" at the same theater and offers Shcheglov pointed advice on standing firm rather than cutting Act III of "The Summer Husband" under pressure.

2 Chekhov thanks Shcheglov for some unspecified favor, then gives a lively account of "The Bear"’s reception at Korsh’s theater: strong performances from the actor Nikolai Solovtsov and the actress Rybchinskaya, continuous audience laughter, and curtain calls, though Chekhov privately judges the acting unrefined. He then recounts a farcical mishap – a bursting coffeepot scalded Rybchinskaya’s face after the first performance, sidelining her – and notes that her replacement, the actress Glama, has since left for Petersburg, leaving the run short-lived. Turning to Shcheglov’s affairs, Chekhov reports progress on placing "The Theatrical Sparrow" with the theater manager Fyodor Korsh and Solovtsov, then urges Shcheglov not to cut Act III of "The Summer Husband" merely to appease others unless he is personally convinced the cut is right, arguing it is better to shelve a play or write two new ones than to compromise under pressure. He closes with self-deprecating remarks about his own indifference to vaudeville-writing, a note that the writer Tikhonov advises submitting "The Bear" to the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg, and brief closing greetings, signed with his own affectionate nickname, "Antoine."