To L. S. Suvorin, 25 November 1889. Moscow.
Л. С. СУВОРИНУ, 25 ноября 1889 г. Москва.
Headnote
Written 25 November 1889 from Moscow to Alexei Sergeyevich Suvorin, the wealthy publisher of Novoye Vremya (New Time), Chekhov’s chief patron, editor, and correspondent through the late 1880s and 1890s.
Content, in order: a practical travel tip ahead of an apparent visit by Suvorin to Moscow (bring a fur coat, it’s cold); reassurance that Chekhov doesn’t mind editing/cutting stories Suvorin sends him for his opinion, and that he enjoys the work as a kind of mental exercise; literary criticism urging Suvorin not to abandon a planned work on Marina Mniszech (Marina Mniszech, the Polish noblewoman who married the First False Dmitry and briefly became tsaritsa of Russia during the Time of Troubles) – Chekhov argues she is the most vivid of historical figures and that her ambivalence toward Russia is irrelevant to her dramatic value; a note on Chekhov’s own forthcoming Christmas-issue story and a query about the fate of a piece he calls "Обыватели" ("The Philistines" / "Obyvateli" – not the mature 1902 play The Philistines (Meshchane); here likely a working title for a story or sketch submitted to Suvorin, whose ultimate fate/published title is not resolved by this letter); a note that Daudet’s play La Lutte pour la vie (The Struggle for Existence) was running simultaneously in three Moscow theaters; a critical aside on the actor Nikolai Fyodorovich Sazonov’s weak performance in Chekhov’s own one-act farce The Bear (Medved), with a broader complaint that actors, drawn from a narrow social world of taverns and bachelor circles, can convincingly play card sharps, billiard markers, and kept women but have no real knowledge of landowners, merchants, priests, or officials; a note that Chekhov will relay Suvorin’s answer to Alexander Ivanovich Sumbatov (stage name Yuzhin), the actor-playwright, that same day; and a closing wish of health.