1890

The year 1890 marks the beginning of Anton Chekhov’s journey to Sakhalin, a remote island used chiefly as a place of exile. In conversation with Fukaéri, Tengo describes the thirty-year-old writer’s arduous passage and the book that grew out of it, a work whose practical, topographical character puzzled readers who expected literature to look elsewhere.

The Journey to Sakhalin

Chekhov belonged to the generation after Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. He was a promising young writer, praised by critics, and a city-dweller living comfortably in Moscow. Yet he set out alone for Sakhalin, although no one understood his true reasons for undertaking a prolonged stay in such a distant place.

The journey itself was punishing. The Trans-Siberian Railway did not yet exist, so Chekhov traveled more than four thousand kilometers by horse-drawn carriage in extreme cold. The ordeal taxed a constitution already described as fragile. He spent eight months in the Far Eastern region, making the journey not a brief excursion but the basis of sustained work there.

A Book That Defied Literary Expectations

Tengo introduces the journey as background to Chekhov’s The Island of Sakhalin, which he has just finished reading. The book unsettled many of its readers: its literary treatment was held to a minimum, and it resembled a practical report or topographical description more than the kind of work expected from a celebrated young writer.

That apparent mismatch provoked speculation about Chekhov’s purpose. Critics called the task useless or insane; some alleged that he was merely seeking publicity through social concerns, while others guessed that he could no longer write and needed material for inspiration. These explanations do not resolve the mystery Tengo emphasizes: why a writer at such an important point in his life chose a demanding and seemingly unliterary undertaking.

Tengo’s Reading to Fukaéri

The episode is framed by Tengo’s decision to read aloud to Fukaéri. He owns few books despite having read many, usually taking finished books to a secondhand bookseller unless they are especially important; he buys what he can read immediately and borrows other needed volumes from the nearest library. After hesitating over what would suit reading aloud, he chooses Chekhov’s book, which he completed the previous week and marked at passages he found interesting.

Before reading the selected passages, Tengo gives Fukaéri a brief account of Chekhov’s age, literary position, destination, and journey. He also uses a map included in the book to point out Sakhalin’s location. Fukaéri’s question about why Chekhov went there prompts Tengo to clarify whether she is asking for his own view. The exchange leaves the journey’s motive open while turning the act of reading into an inquiry shared between them.