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All my plays are being printed, and as soon as they are ready I shall send you a copy.... MELIHOVO, November 11, 1896. You cannot imagine how your letter rejoiced me. I saw from the front only the two first acts of my play. Afterwards I sat behind the scenes and felt the whole time that "The Seagull" was a failure.
My sister is delighted with you and Anna Ivanovna, and I am inexpressibly glad of it, for I love your family like my own. She hastened home from Petersburg, possibly imagining that I would hang myself.... MELIHOVO, November, 1896. If, O honoured "One of the Audience", you are writing of the first performance, then allow oh, allow me to doubt your sincerity.
I have no money, but I live in the country: there are no restaurants and no cabmen, and money does not seem to be needed. MELIHOVO, April 13, 1895. I am sick of Sienkiewicz's "The Family of the Polonetskys." It's the Polish Easter cake with saffron. Add Potapenko to Paul Bourget, sprinkle with Warsaw eau-de-Cologne, divide in two, and you get Sienkiewicz.
I shall be at Melihovo about the twenty-fifth or towards the end of October. On the twenty-ninth is the meeting of the Zemstvo, at which I must be present as there will be a discussion about roads.... PETERSBURG, October 18, 1896. I am off to Melihovo. All good wishes.... Stop the printing of the plays.
Chekhov's household at this time consisted of his father and mother, his sister, and his younger brother Mihail. These were all permanent inmates of Melihovo. As soon as the snow had disappeared the various duties in the house and on the land were assigned: Chekhov's sister undertook the flower-beds and the kitchen garden, his younger brother undertook the field work.
In fact, at moments I am so happy that I superstitiously pull myself up and remind myself of my creditors, who will one day drive me out of the Australia I have so happily won.... MELIHOVO, March 19, 1892. I have read your story "On the Road."
I ought to get married. Perhaps a cross wife would cut down the number of my visitors by at least a half. Yesterday they were coming all day long, it was simply awful. They came two at a time and each one begs me not to speak and at the same time asks me questions.... MELIHOVO, April 17, 1897. I am now at home. For a fortnight before Easter I was lying in Ostroumov's clinic and was spitting blood.
Yesterday's adventure did not astonish or greatly disappoint me, for I was prepared for it by the rehearsals and I don't feel particularly bad. When you come to Melihovo bring Lika with you. PETERSBURG, October 18, 1896. The play has fallen flat, and come down with a crash. There was an oppressive strained feeling of disgrace and bewilderment in the theatre. The actors played abominably stupidly.
Chekhov's mother did her utmost to load the tables with dainties; his father with a mysterious air would produce various specially prepared cordials and liqueurs from some hidden recess; and then it seemed that Melihovo had something of its own, peculiar to it, which could be found in no other country estate. Chekhov was always particularly pleased at the visits of Miss Mizinov and of Potapenko.
Not wishing to see or meet anyone, Chekhov kept out of sight after the performance, and by next morning was in the train on his way back to Melihovo. The subsequent performances of "The Seagull," when the actors understood it, were successful. Chekhov had collected a large number of books, and in 1896 he resolved to present them to the public library in his native town of Taganrog.
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