Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends

TO MADAME AVILOV.

NICE, October 6, 1897.

... You complain that my heroes are gloomy—alas! that’s not my fault. This happens apart from my will, and when I write it does not seem to me that I am writing gloomily; in any case, as I work I am always in excellent spirits. It has been observed that gloomy, melancholy people always write cheerfully, while those who enjoy life put their depression into their writings. And I am a man who enjoys life; the first thirty years of my life I have lived as they say in pleasure and content....