To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 3 November 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 3 November 1888 to the poet and "Severny Vestnik" editor Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheyev, this letter is a dense run of miscellany typical of the autumn 1888 sequence (cf. letters 490, 497, 499, 502, 506, 512), opening with an update on the story Chekhov owes the Garshin memorial collection: a quarter written, and a request for one more week’s grace, with a promise to confirm by telegram once it is finished.

2 Chekhov explains the request for delay is not laziness but a depressed state brought on by an unspecified "small family upset" (to be explained in person) and money troubles running since September – described in blunt, unsparing terms ("not a kopeck in my pocket,drowning in debts"). He then turns to the business of the Garshin collection: predicting it will find subscribers if only Pleshcheyev would advertise it (noting its absence from the latest "Severny Vestnik"), and mentioning that Konstantin Barantsevich is separately pressing him for a story for his own, competing collection, expected to appear around the same time.

3 Chekhov then supplies the title of his promised story, "An Attack of Nerves" ("Припадок," cf. letter 500, where the same story is first named in a letter to Suvorin), describing its setting on Sobolev Lane among houses of prostitution and stressing that he is treating the subject carefully, without wallowing in the sordid or resorting to coarse language – a rare authorial aside on his own method with a sensitive subject. He thanks Pleshcheyev for sending Dmitri Merezhkovsky’s article (cf. letter 491, where Chekhov first says he looks forward to reading it), promising a separate letter about it, then asks a quick run of questions about Vladimir Korolenko’s whereabouts and work (cf. letters 483 and 512, which track Korolenko’s departure from and standing at "Severny Vestnik").

4 The letter closes with a run of short items: Chekhov is on his way to the opening of the Society of Art and Literature, where there will be a ball; his one-act farce "The Bear" ("Медведь") has had a noisy, successful run at Korsh’s theater (cf. letter 517, which gives a fuller account of that run, including the coffeepot mishap); his story "The Name-Day" ("Именины," cf. letter 515) has appeared riddled with misprints; and he offers a brief word of encouragement about "Severny Vestnik"’s troubles (cf. letter 512’s discussion of the journal’s finances and subscriber numbers). The letter ends with the standing formula of regards to Pleshcheyev’s family, an added greeting to Georges Lintvaryov by name, and the signature.