In the late 1880s, Anton Chekhov wrote a novel. It is known that at least three chapters of it were written, and that it was presented to Chekhov as a system of short stories united by the fates of characters sympathetic to the author; hence the title already formed in the course of the work.: "Stories from the lives of my friends". However, among both lifetime and posthumous publications, neither the novel nor any surviving parts of it could be found. Hence its various characteristics in Czech studies: "incomplete", "failed", "extinguished"," unwritten "and even"mythical". Numerous conjectures and conjectures have been made about the fate of the mysterious novel for decades. At one time, I expressed the opinion (Russian literature. 1965. N 2. pp. 172-179), that the surviving chapters are three stories that, for a number of reasons, were published at different times and under different circumstances. These stories (listed in the order in which they should have followed in the novel): "At the Zelenins' "(published posthumously - the magazine "Russian Thought". 1905. Kn. G), " After the Theater "( published by Chekhov in the "Petersburg newspaper" on April 7, 1892), " Letter "(the magazine "Labor Way". 1907. N 7). Moreover, the previous dating of the stories ("At the Zelenins '" and "Letter", before the titles of which in the manuscript there were numbers, respectively, "I" and "III", attributed to 1903, then to 1898, and then to the year of publication). page 10 the story "After the Theater" was dated at the time of publication and was not connected with the other two in any way) was replaced by a new one-1887-1889, which was confirmed when comparing autographs (handwriting, paper). This solution of the problem was supported-often, however, not without reservations - by a number of Czech scholars and was reflected in the last academic 30-volume Collection of works and letters of A. P. Chekhov (see p.: Soch. Vol. 7. Moscow, 1977. pp. 510-517; p. 718-commentary; Vol. 8 ... Read more