MOSCOW,
January 18, 1887.


... During the holidays I was so overwhelmed with work that on Mother's
name-day I was almost dropping with exhaustion.

I must tell you that in Petersburg I am now the most fashionable writer.
One can see that from papers and magazines, which at the end of 1886 were
taken up with me, bandied my name about, and praised me beyond my deserts.
The result of this growth of my literary reputation is that I get a number
of orders and invitations--and this is followed by work at high pressure
and exhaustion. My work is nervous, disturbing, and involving strain. It is
public and responsible, which makes it doubly hard. Every newspaper report
about me agitates both me and my family.... My stories are read at public
recitations, wherever I go people point at me, I am overwhelmed with
acquaintances, and so on, and so on. I have not a day of peace, and feel as
though I were on thorns every moment.

... Volodya [Translator's Note: He had apparently criticized the name
Vladimir, which means "lord of the world."] is right.... It is true that a
man cannot possess the world, but a man can be called "the lord of the
world." Tell Volodya that out of gratitude, reverence, or admiration of the
virtues of the best men--those qualities which make a man exceptional and
akin to the Deity--peoples and historians have a right to call their elect
as they like, without being afraid of insulting God's greatness or of
raising a man to God. The fact is we exalt, not a man as such, but his good
qualities, just that divine principle which he has succeeded in developing
in himself to a high degree. Thus remarkable kings are called "great,"
though bodily they may not be taller than I. I. Loboda; the Pope is called