To Al. P. Chekhov, 4–15 May 1891. Aleksin.

1 A short, mock-formal note written sometime between 4 and 15 May 1891 from the Chekhov family’s rented dacha near Aleksin station (Tula province, on the Oka), addressed to Chekhov’s eldest brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, a journalist then living in Petersburg. It belongs to the same run of Aleksin dacha letters as (to brother Ivan) and shares that letter’s household news – the father’s release from Gavrilov’s service and the pet mongoose Mangus – but pitched here in the exaggerated mock-solemn register Chekhov reserves for Alexander.

2 After the dateline (1) and short-form address (2), Chekhov opens with an elaborately mocking salutation (3) – "our two-faced freethinking brother," addressed to his "graciousness" – announcing his return from abroad ("the rotten West") to the dacha, and reporting that their father Pavel Yegorovich is now living with them, having left the employ of Gavrilov, who on his way out pronounced the Chekhov children "scoundrels" – a jab Chekhov relays with evident relish ("Chew on that!"). He then reports (4) on the household’s pet mongoose, who pulls corks from bottles and breaks crockery, and jokingly urges Alexander to visit if only to see the animal. The letter closes with regards to Alexander’s wife and to "the Petersburg townsfolk" (5), a mock-formal valediction accusing Alexander of negligence (6), the signature (7), and a one-word postscript demand to write (8).