If Chekhov had a social media account, he would’ve been by far the best in the world at platitudes, aphorisms, etm. and would surely get thousands of likes under each post. I noticed that somehow in the English-speaking circles he’s known more for short stories, while for me, even though I love the stories, too, his more important and influential works are undoubtedly plays and his letters. In the letters, you can see his real character, or the one he seemed to prefer to play—not just a serious doctor with a professorial look who “surgically dissected human condition” (ew, can’t be more cliche than that) but also a jester, witty and playful. Today I want us to look more into that side of his by joining him on his first Eurotrip and imagining he wrote a travel blog instead of letters.
In the spring of 1891, Chekhov visited Austria, Italy, France, and Germany for the first time. This trip was a breath of fresh air after intense work and the distressing impressions from his previous journey— Sakhalin Island1. In 1890, Chekhov undertook an arduous journey to Sakhalin Island, where he studied the living conditions of convicts and exiles. This journey lasted several months and required enormous physical and emotional strain from the writer. The result of the trip was the book “Sakhalin Island”, published in 1893-1894., which is also well-documented and worth looking into if you’re a fan of either Chekhov or that part of the world or both (maybe later I’ll share that too). During his Eurotrip, as always, Chekhov maintained an active correspondence sharing his impressions of what he had seen and experienced. It is a genuine literary account and a portrait of Europe through the eyes of a Russian writer, filled with lively observations, astute characterisations, and, most importantly, inimitable humour. So, let’s see the 1891 Europe through his own eyes words.
