To M. P. Chekhova, 14 January 1890. Petersburg.

A short letter to his sister Maria Pavlovna Chekhova, written from Petersburg on 14 January 1890 – during the stretch of preparation and delay before Chekhov’s departure for Sakhalin that April. He is stuck in the capital longer than planned ("unforeseen circumstances have held me up a few more days") and reports briskly on how he has been filling the time: he saw Tolstoy’s play "The Power of Darkness" (Власть тьмы) on stage, visited Ilya Repin’s studio, and went to a dog show with his friend and publisher Alexey Suvorin, who – literally looking over Chekhov’s shoulder as he writes – jokingly dictates that Chekhov describe him as "the well-known dog Suvorin." The letter is plain, quick, and self-deprecating about its own thinness ("on the whole it’s dull,there’s nothing more to write"), typical of Chekhov’s brief family dispatches from this period.

After the signature, two short additional notes are appended in the same letter: one reporting that Georges (Yegor) Lintvaryov – a family friend, son of the Lintvaryov family whose Luka estate the Chekhovs had been renting in summers – is currently idle in Petersburg; and one asking after news from their brother Mikhail (Misha) about "Artist" (a periodical, "Артист") and "The Wood Demon" (Леший, Chekhov’s play, the work he would later substantially revise into "Uncle Vanya").