"In November 1889 The Northern Herald saved itself from extinction by printing Chekhov's 'A Dreary Story'. The work made a tremendous impact. Chekhov had found a voice and a viewpoint in his disillusioned professor of medicine [   ] The Petersburg Professor of Medicine, Botkin, died of liver cancer that winter, and Chekhov's work seemed prophetic [   ] Anton proudly inscribed a copy to the playwright Prince Sumbatov:

 

Have you also noticed that there is a Petersburg Professor of Medicine named Botkin - informing that Chekhov's "A Dreary Story" was considered to be prophetic of the other doctor's death?   A Nabokovian kind of literary "Leitmotiv", you think?????