Olga has just left for Switzerland, to have her teeth fixed in Basle. She will be horne at 5 this afternoon.
I want terribly to go to Italy. I'm very glad Vanya is with you and give him my regards. Give them to Marna, too. . . .
I am glad everything is going well at horne. I will remain here another three weeks probably, then spend a short time in Italy, and on to Yalta, perhaps by the sea route.
\Vrite oftener. Tell Vanya to wvrite, too. Keep well and happy. I kiss you.
Your A.
To MARIA CHEKHOVA1
June 28, igo4, Badenweiler
Dear Masha,
A fierce heat wave has come upon us and caught me unawares, as I have only my winter suits with me. I am stifling and am considering leaving here. But where to go? I would like to visit Como in Italy but everybody there has run away on account of the heat. All southern Europe is hot. I would like to take the steamer from Trieste to Odessa but don't know how feasible this is during June and July. \Vould you mind perhaps inquir- ing from Georgie what kind of boats they have on that run?
1 This is the last letter Chekhov 'uote. He died four days later in Baden- weiler, on July 2, 1904.
Have they comfortable accommodations? Do they make long stops, is the food good, etc., etc.? This would be an invaluable trip for me, but only if the ship were a good one. George2 would do me a great favor if he would cable me at my expense. The cable should take this form: "Badenweiler Tschechow. Bien. 16. Vendredi." These words would mean: bien—the steamer is all right. Sixteen—number of days the trip takes, Vendredi—the day the steamer leaves Trieste. Of course I am only giving the form of the cable, and if the steamer leaves on a Thursday it certainly won't do to write Vendredi.
It won't be a calamity if the trip is a somewhat hot one, as I will be wearing a light flannel suit. I might as well confess I am rather afraid of making it by train. The coaches are suffocating in this kind of weather, especially with my shortness of breath, which the least little nothing makes worse. Besides, there are no sleeping cars from Vienna right through to Odessa, so it would be a restless trip. Then too, the train gets one home faster than necessary and I haven't yet had my fill of traveling.
It is very hot, enough to make you strip. I just don't know what to do. Olga went to Freiburg to order my flannel suit— there are no tailors or shoemakers in Badenweiler. She took the suit Duchard made for me as a sample.
am eating really delicious food, but not much of it as my stomach is always getting out of order. I daren't eat the butter here. Apparently my stomach has been hopelessly spoiled and it is hardly possible to set it to rights by any means short of fast- ing, i.e. to stop eating—and that's that. As for the shortness of breath, there is only one remedy—not to move.
You don't see a single decently dressed German woman, the lack of taste is depressing.
Keep well and happy, regards to Mama, Vanya, George, Auntie and all the rest. Write. I kiss you and press your hand.
Your
A.
Chekhov's cousin George worked for a steamship line.
INDEX
Academy of Sciences, 205, 259-260, 263,
303, 303^, 307 Alarm Clock, The, 7, 16 Alexander Theatre, 250 Altshuller, Doctor Isaac, 267, 300, 320 Andreyev, Leonid, 293, 295, 307 Andreye,a, Maria, letter to, 282 Anna Karenina, 57, 174 Annals of Surgery, 190 to 191 Antigone, 225
Artem, Alexander, 291, 306, 317 Artist, The, 181 Astyrev, Nikolai, 166, i66n Asya, 174
Avilova, Lydia, letters to, 163, 212, 225,
237
Balmont, Konstantin, 293 Barantsevich, Kasimir, 259 Baryatinski, Prince, 259 Batushkov, Fyodor, letter to, 261 Bear, The, 57• 66, 298 Bertenson, Doctor Lev, 73 Bourget, Paul, 82, 82n, 83, 84, 187 Bunin, Ivan, 5, 299
Burenin, Victor, 41, 65, 135, 135^, 168,
243
Bykov, Pyotr, letter to, 164 Byron, Lord, 173
Cantani, Method, 167, 169 Chekhov, Alexander, x,i, X\ii, 45, 288; letters to, 22, 40, 42, 47, 181, 185, 197. 209, 221, 222, 234, 240, 2,13 Chekhov, Ivan, 47, 151, 160, 201, 276,
285, 288, 324; letter to, 142 Chekhov, Mikhail, 123, 135, 147, 148, 155. 160, 175. 176, 288, 312; letters to, 45^ 141, *93, 226, 264 Chekhov, Nikolai, xvi, xvii, 6, 22, 43, 105, 107, 160; letter to, 10
Chekhov, Mitrofan (uncle). 28, 29, 34, 39. 182
Chekhov, Pavel, xiv, xv, 48, 88, 135, 182, 185, 186, 186n, 201 209, 226, 227 Chekhova, Elena, 288 Chekhova, Evgenia, xiv, xv, 47, 135, 182, 201, 209, 214, 226, 227, 240, 265, 267, 274-275, 278, 279, 286, 287, 288, 300, 310, 311, 323; letter to, 122; tele- gram to, 286 Chekhova, Maria, 47, 89, 195, 201, 203, 208, 258, 26o, 271, 273, 276, 279, 2870, 288, 289, 298, 300, 302, 311, 312, 314; letters to, 25, 36, 37, 101, 103, 105, 108, 135, 139. 140, 143, 146, 175, 184, 212, 238. 245, 267, 274, 286, 287, 304, 320, 321, 322, 323, 324 Chekhova, Olga, see Knipper, Olga Chekhova, Olga Hennanovna, letter to, 220
Chekhova, Sasha, 184
Cherry Orchard, The, xxv, xx\i, 204,
Children, The, 136 Chirikov, Evgeni, 237, 270 Cosmopolis, 187 Cosmopolis (magazine) ,216 Ciar Fyodor loannovich, 223, 223^
D'Alheim, Olenina, 311 Daiidov, Denis, 172 Davidov, Vladimir, 40, 43, 66, 77 Diaghilev, Serge, 243 Diakonov, Pyotr, 190 Dilemma, A., 307 Diversion, 7 Dog, The, 174 Dolzhenko, Alexei, 288 Dragon Fly, 161
Dreyfus Case, 201-202, 216 to 220, 221, 2410, 310
Duel, The, 1480, 155, 161 Duse, Eleanora, 139
Eberle, Varvara, 180
Enel, Alexander, 229; letter to, 210
Eugene Onegin, 57, 144^
Fair, The, 241 Father Petrov, 242, 2420 Fathers and Sons, 174 Faust, 179
First-class Passenger, The, 64 Fofanov, Konstantin, 97, 970, 177 Folly of the Mir, 231 Foma Gordeyev, 244, 248, 266, 270 Fragments, 6, 6n, 16
Galkin-Vraski, Mikhail, 840, 129, 169;
letter to, 84 Garshin, Vsevolod, 97, 970, 173 Glama, Alexandra, 40 Gloomy People, 95, 950, 161 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Xviii, 12, 83 Gogol, Nikolai, i$2n, 318 Goltsev, Victor, 60 Goncharov, Ivan, 81, 810 Gorki, Maxim, 204, 205, 237, 241, 261, 272, 274, 275, 292, 293, 294, 294«, 295, 2g6, 297, 298, 301, 303, 3030, 307, 3o;n, 309, 311, 313, 318; letters 10, 228, 230, 241, 242, 244, 248, 265, 270, 27/. 290 305 Grigormich, Dmitri, 66, 78, 136, 173;