8 K.P. Pobedonostsev, Pis'ma K.P. Pobedonostseva k Aleksandru III (Moscow: Novaia Moskva, 1924–1926), vol. 1: 367.
9 N.A. Leikin, N.A. Leikin v ego vospominaniiakh I perepiske (St. Petersburg: T-vo R. Golike and A. Vid'borg, 1907), 240–41.
10 Ibid., 100.
11 Anton Chekhov to N.A. Leikin, letter of April 1, 1885, Perepiska, vol. I: 170.
12 A description of Oriental Suites is found in K.A. Korovin, “Iz moikh vstrech’s. A.P. Chekhovym,” in A.P. Chekhov v vospominaniakh sovremennikov (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literature, 1986), 26–27.
13 Ibid., 20.
14 Gilbert Phelps, The Russian Novel in English Fiction (London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1956), 187.
15 Peter Constantine has brought out several collections of lively translations of the early stories, starting with The Undiscovered Chekhov (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998).
16 Anton Chekhov to Olga Knipper-Chekhova, letter of April 20, 1904, Correspondence of A.P. Chekhov and O.L. Knipper (Perepiska A.P. Chekhova i O.L. Knipper) (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 2004) vol. 2: 1024.
ARTISTS’ WIVES
The story was first published on December 7, 1880, in the St. Petersburg daily paper Minute (Minuta), which billed itself as “a political and literary gazette,” under the pseudonym “Don Antonio Chekhonte.” It is sometimes assumed that the story is a parody of Alphonse Daudet’s Les Femmes d’Artistes (1874), but it obviously has more to do with the bohemian lives of Russian artists, writers, and musicians, which Chekhov witnessed firsthand. The original title was “A Portuguese Legend in the Russian Manner About Artists’ Wives.” There are many private and not-so-private jokes; for example, the title of Zinzaga’s awful novel The Sleepwalker Upon the Seas echoes the title of a long story by Alexander Chekhov (Anton’s older brother), “The Sleepwalker,” published in The Alarm Clock in 1881. Chekhov reworked the story twice: the first time, for publication in The Alarm Clock Anthology (Almanakh Budil'nika) in 1882—this version, with minor stylistic changes, was also included in The Prank; the second time, for publication in Tales of Melpomene in 1884. Chekhov’s changes were mostly stylistic in nature, but some were obviously meant to avoid problems with the censors. Thus, Amaranta’s exclamation at finding out that Alfonso’s poem would not be published was changed from “Oh those censors! Since I became your wife, I’ve hated censors with all my heart!” to the less incendiary “Since I became your wife, I’ve hated editors with all my heart!”
PAPA
The story was first published on June 29, 1880, in The Dragonfly (Strekoza), a weekly journal of the arts and humor that was published in St. Petersburg, and signed “An. Ch.” Chekhov edited the story for The Prank by introducing minor stylistic changes, by adding the episode of the attempted bribe, and by getting rid of the conclusion, which satirized all too clearly the corruption of Russian society of the time: “He succeeded. Others will follow this example.” The math teacher and his wife are probably based on Chekhov’s own teacher V.D. Starov and his free-spending wife, Ariadna, back in Taganrog, where Chekhov spent his childhood and early youth. Interestingly, Chekhov himself had to repeat grade three mathematics after failing it.
ST. PETER’S DAY
The story was first published on June 29, 1881, in The Alarm Clock and signed “Antosha Chekhonte.” The original title of the story was “June Twenty-ninth (A Joke) (Dedicated with pleasure to those hunters who don’t shoot well and those who don’t know how to shoot).” When Chekhov edited the story for The Prank, he changed the title and got rid of some minor stylistic glitches.
CHASE TWO RABBITS, CATCH NONE
The story first appeared on May 11, 1880, in The Dragonfly with the subtitle “A Novel in One Chapter, Without a Prologue or an Epilogue,” and was signed “Chekhonte.” Editorial changes made by Chekhov for The Prank were minor. The proverb had a very personal meaning for Chekhov, who saw himself as chasing after the two rabbits, as it were, of medicine and writing; as he wrote to Dmitry Grigorovich, “that proverb about the two rabbits drove me to the point of insomnia” (letter of March 28, 1886, in A.P. Chekhov, Perepiska [Moscow: Nasledie, 1996], vol. 1: 292).
A CONFESSION, OR, OLYA, ZHENYA, ZOYA
The story was first published on March 20, 1882, in The Alarm Clock and was not signed. The changes made for the book were minor and mostly stylistic. Chekhov gave a name to the “narrator” of the story (Makar Baldastov) and added a new subtitle (“A Letter”).
A SINNER FROM TOLEDO
The story was first published on December 23, 1881, in The Spectator (Zritel'), an illustrated literary, arts, and humor journal published in Moscow, and signed “Antosha Ch.” The changes made for the book version included an omission of the following important passages: “[in his book, Augustine] boasted of his love for Christ. ‘But is it possible,’ Maria had thought many times, ‘for one to love Christ if one does not love man?’”; and “His [Spalanzo’s] father taught him to mock the teachings about the ‘succubi and incubi.’”
THE TEMPERAMENTS
The story was first published on September 17, 1881, in the journal The Spectator and signed “Antosha Ch***.” Chekhov edited the story for The Prank by making minor stylistic changes and deleting two segments of text satirizing the ultraconservative newspaper Moscow News (Moskovskie vedomosti) and its editor, M.N. Katkov (1818–1887). Thus, this sentence describing a male with a melancholic temperament was deleted: “He was once a reader of Moscow News but stopped being one when he realized that reading it resulted in a feeling of heaviness in the pit of his stomach, heart palpitations, and blurred vision.” So was this entire segment that was a satire on Katkov himself:
Choleric-Melancholic Temperament in a Male
The choleric-melancholic male was sanguine in his youth. But then a black cat crossed his path, the devil gave him a whack on the back of his head, and he became choleric-melancholic. (I have in mind here the ultra-famous and ultra-immortal neighbor of The Spectator’s editorial office.) Ninety-nine percent of Slavophiles are choleric-melancholics. A choleric-melancholic is an unappreciated poet, an unappreciated pater patriae, an unappreciated Jupiter and Demosthenes, and so forth. He is a cuckolded husband. Generally speaking, he is anyone who is all bark and no bite.
FLYING ISLANDS BY JULES VERNE
The story was supposed to have been published in The Prank. When the book was killed by the censors, Chekhov submitted the story to Splinters (Oskolki), a St. Petersburg humorous weekly magazine whose editor, Nikolay Leikin, considered it too long for his journal. Chekhov then published it (along with Nikolay Chekhov’s illustrations) in The Alarm Clock on May 21, 1883, signed “A. Chekhonte.” Early air travel was all the rage in the 1880s in Russia; “aeronauts” drew crowds and reporters (in 1882, for instance, Chekhov’s colleague and friend Vladimir Gilyarovsky had to report on a flight of one Aeronaut Berg in a balloon).