The story, divided into nine chapters and described by Chekhov as a "medical novella, historia morbi", portraying a "young man suffering from delusions of grandeur",[2] was first published by The Artist (No 1, January 1894 issue).

[3] According to Mikhail Chekhov, "in Melikhovo Anton Pavlovich's nerves got completely out of order due to overwork, and he almost lost sleep.

"If you want to become a true writer, my darling, study psychiatry, this is quite necessary," he was assuring Shchepkina-Kupernik, "...in those days when he was writing The Black Monk", according to her 1928 memoirs.

Chekhov thought little of Nordau's ideas,[11] but it might have left some impression upon him, for at least twice the Black Monk in his speeches quotes fragments from the chapter called "Genius and Crowd".

The place is gorgeous, with expansive gardens and orchards – it is the lifework of Yegor, his former guardian, who lives and works there with his daughter, Tanya.

The black monk convinces Kovrin that he is chosen by God for a special purpose – that he has the power to save mankind from millennia of suffering using his genius, and that his recent ill health is inevitable for someone making such noble sacrifices.

The story ends with Kovrin experiencing one final hallucination while he hemorrhages; the black monk guides him toward incorporeal genius and he dies with a smile.

After the publication of "The Black Monk" several Chekhov's correspondents wrote to him to express delight and gratitude, among them journalist Mikhail Menshikov, children's writer (and the owner of the Babkino estate) Maria Kiselyova and Ivan Gorbunov-Posadov.

Gavrila Rusanov, Lev Tolstoy's friend and long-time correspondent, on 14 February informed Chekhov of how fond the latter was of the story ("It's wonder, just wonder!"

The fatal misunderstanding between the sick and the healthy leads to horribly senseless tragedy," wrote Sergey Andreyevsky, reviewing 'the Novellas and Stories collection for Novoye Vremya.

[14] Alexander Skabichevsky (in Novosti i Birzhevaya Gazeta) too saw the story as nothing but a "rather curious description of the process of man going mad", from which "the reader cannot extract no conclusion, no idea".

[15] "This might have been unintentional, but it looks as if what Chekhov had meant here was that... strong aspirations and true noble passions are the province only of those prone to chasing spectral shadows," suggested D.M., the Russkiye Vedomosti reviewer.

Some Things on Chekhov" argued that, far from being a mere psychiatric etude, The Black Monk was a serious statement, providing another sign of the author's changing his mindset.

"Who is this Black Monk: a benevolent spirit consoling tired men with dreams and delusions about them being 'the chosen ones'... or, on the contrary, an evil genius who with vile flattery entices them into the world of madness, grief... and finally, death?"

To become a novelist, though, according to Legras, Checkov would need to "considerably change [his] maniere, stop being content with using these concise, finely chiseled phrases", to such great effect, "become more involved with what's going on", and "love the life" rather than remain its "cruel observer".