To V. A. Tikhonov, 13 September 1889. Moscow.
В. А. ТИХОНОВУ, 13 сентября 1889 г. Москва.
Headnote
Date and addressee. 13 September 1889, written from Moscow to the playwright and journalist Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov (1857–1914), a minor contemporary dramatist and a friend/correspondent of Chekhov’s in this period. Short, breezy, occasional note — Chekhov has just returned to Moscow (probably from Sumy/the south, where he summered) and is catching up with Tikhonov.
A brisk, jocular note. Chekhov announces his return ("I am here!!"), teases Tikhonov by nicknaming him the "Russian Sardou" (i.e. compares him, half-mockingly, to the prolific French boulevard playwright Victorien Sardou) and says he looks forward to seeing him and his new play "Rays and Clouds" (Луч и тучи / "Луч и тучи" - rendered here as "Rays and Clouds"), which he has heard about from the theater manager Korsh. He reports no real news, describes life as an unchanged mix of good and bad ("a thick blend of optimism and pessimism"), mentions that Tikhonov’s play "Without Yoke and Flatiron" (Без коромысла и утюга) is still running at Korsh’s theater and that he intends to go see it, brushes off small talk about the weather, and then turns to his own work: he has just finished a long story that he calls heavy, clumsy, and cumbersome — not long in page count but demanding in execution — and says he is trying out a new thematic motif. He closes with a short "I await word from you, keep well" and signs off.