To N. M. Lintvareva, April 1891. Rome.
Н. М. ЛИНТВАРЕВОЙ, 11 (23) апреля 1891 г. Рим.
Headnote
A short letter of 11 (23) April 1891, from Rome, to Natalya Mikhailovna Lintvaryova, who ran the farming side of the family estate at Luka, near Sumy, where the Chekhov household summered. Part of the celebrated spring 1891 European travel series (with Suvorin, through Vienna, Venice, Florence, Rome, and on to Naples, Nice, and Paris). dateline, header date, a long paragraph of practical instructions about a bookseller’s grievance, personal news and closing regards, signature, and a one-line postscript about a farmstead purchase.
Location note: this letter’s dateline reads "Rome," even though the companion letter of 3 (15) April (source/headnote) has Chekhov already leaving Rome for Naples. This is not a transcription inconsistency: a later letter in the series, of 12 (24) April from Finalmarina (source/headnote), reports "Yesterday I was in Rome again," confirming Chekhov’s party made a return loop through Rome around 10–11 April before continuing on to Nice by way of Genoa. The dateline is rendered here exactly as given in the source.
Chekhov opens with an extended, businesslike paragraph asking Lintvaryova to relay instructions to Marfa Ivanovna Stoyanova, a bookseller at a train station whose grievance Chekhov has been trying to sort out through Suvorin’s son (in charge of the railway book trade) without success – her own letter to him was too tangled with vague accusations against unnamed "malefactors" to be shown to anyone. He tells Lintvaryova to have Stoyanova write directly to Alexei Sergeyevich Suvorin (misrendered by Chekhov in the source as "Mikhail Alexeyevich," an apparent slip – rendered here as given, uncorrected), the editor of Novoye Vremya, and to state her case plainly, point by point, without hints at other people or unsubstantiated charges of embezzlement. He then turns to personal news: he saw Elena Mikhailovna in March, has not seen Natalya Mikhailovna herself in a long while, hopes to that summer, and sends regards, signing as her "sincere admirer." A one-line postscript reports he has postponed buying a farmstead until 1895, having spent so much on the trip that he may soon need to borrow money from her.