ABSTRACT
Paul Chekhov worked as a clerk in Taganrog, until in 1857 he had saved up enough money to open a grocer’s shop. He belonged now to the second gild of merchants of Taganrog and had recently married the daughter of a cloth merchant, a man of some education, whose affairs had taken him all over Russia. Church on Saturday evening and Sunday morning was always followed by hymns sung in parts at home, and sometimes the Chekhov boys would sing trios in church. Everyone envied their parents then, Chekhov said later, but the boys themselves felt like little convicts. In April and May of 1887 Chekhov found a flood of new impressions on the journey which he made, mainly for reasons of health to the south of Russia. In March and April of the following year Chekhov was again abroad, this time. with Suvorin, in Austria, Italy and France.
