Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends

About the book

These selected letters and passages follow Chekhov in exchanges with relatives, friends, and people connected with his writing. Advice about literary work appears beside money concerns, household arrangements, health, journeys, and the obligations of friendship. The changing recipients reveal different registers of his voice, from teasing and practical instruction to considered judgments about art and conduct. A biographical sketch helps place the correspondence within a life, but the letters retain the immediacy of communications written for particular occasions. Garnett's selection is explicitly selective, and the accompanying memoir adapts material by Chekhov's brother. The volume offers a useful companion to the fiction by showing the writer making provisional decisions and responding to others, rather than presenting a finished retrospective explanation of his character or artistic purpose.

• Literary work
• Family and friendship
• Everyday responsibility

Why read it

For the interplay of practical concerns and literary judgment in correspondence addressed to people who mattered to Chekhov.

Selected letters and biographical sketch · translated by Constance Garnett