<P> In March 1897, Chekhov suffered a major haemorrhage of the lungs while on a visit to Moscow . With great difficulty he was persuaded to enter a clinic, where the doctors diagnosed tuberculosis on the upper part of his lungs and ordered a change in his manner of life . </P> <P> After his father's death in 1898, Chekhov bought a plot of land on the outskirts of Yalta and built a villa, into which he moved with his mother and sister the following year . Though he planted trees and flowers, kept dogs and tame cranes, and received guests such as Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky, Chekhov was always relieved to leave his "hot Siberia" for Moscow or travels abroad . He vowed to move to Taganrog as soon as a water supply was installed there . In Yalta he completed two more plays for the Art Theatre, composing with greater difficulty than in the days when he "wrote serenely, the way I eat pancakes now". He took a year each over Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard . </P> <P> On 25 May 1901, Chekhov married Olga Knipper quietly, owing to his horror of weddings . She was a former protegée and sometime lover of Nemirovich - Danchenko whom he had first met at rehearsals for The Seagull . Up to that point, Chekhov, known as "Russia's most elusive literary bachelor," had preferred passing liaisons and visits to brothels over commitment . He had once written to Suvorin: </P> <P> By all means I will be married if you wish it . But on these conditions: everything must be as it has been hitherto--that is, she must live in Moscow while I live in the country, and I will come and see her...I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, won't appear in my sky every day . </P>

A day in the country by anton checkov summary