 He was pulled in a thousand directions at once, and this wore him down.In particular, he found the entreaties of his wife, Sofya, difficult, as she suspected (correctly) that he was plotting with his closest friend, Chertkov, to betray the family by giving away the copyright to his works.Sofya's main concern was the family and the difficulty of maintaining her style of life after her husband's death (he was, after all, 82).