To Ye. M. Lintvareva, 23 November 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 23 November 1888 to Elena Mikhailovna Lintvaryova, the eldest of the Lintvaryov sisters and a physician at the family’s Sumy estate, Luka. This is the third letter in the corpus addressed directly to Elena Mikhailovna herself, following (9 October) and (27 October); the same easy, doctor-to-doctor register continues – he opens by addressing her as "esteemed colleague."

2 Chekhov finally settles the running business of the plakhtas (the Ukrainian woven skirt-wraps discussed in both earlier letters): he thanks her for them, reports that many arrived without their price-slips so the total he can reconstruct looks suspiciously low, and offers again to send payment or goods in kind. He turns to literary and social news – the Garshin memorial volume, in which his own contribution may yet be cut by the censor for treating a "delicate old question"; a recommendation of Nikolai Zlatovratsky’s story "The Hetman" in "Russkaya Mysl"; and a relayed report from Alexei Pleshcheev that Elena Mikhailovna’s "composer" is at work, alongside a friendly inquiry after Pavel Mikhailovich (her brother). He describes his own life as busy but dull, mixing writing with a little doctoring and dutiful social calls, and imagines escaping to the country to sleep through the winter like a mole. A domestic report from his sister-in-law-to-be Zinaida Mikhailovna about someone beating "only drunkards" with a yoke is garbled at a gap in the source text; Chekhov reacts to it (or perhaps to the coming summer generally) with a mock-alarmed exclamation and a note to warn "Timofeyev." He sends greetings to the household, including his friend Artemenko, apologizes for writing on half-sheets of paper cut for story manuscripts, and signs off. Two postscript-like closing sections ask after Natalia Mikhailovna’s opinion of "the farmstead" and mention seeing Elena Mikhailovna’s brother soon, before a final paragraph on his journalism – a short article on the explorer Przhevalsky now translated into German, and his practice of writing brief pieces on any subject – closing with the remark that he wishes to learn from the actor Lensky how to speak and read, and a self-deprecating aside that his tongue-tied nature kept him from becoming a lawyer.