person
Nozdryov
also: Ноздрев, Ноздрева
The blustering, restless landowner of Gogol's Dead Souls, notorious for his compulsive attendance at fairs, gambling, and horse-trading; Chekhov jokingly compares his planned summer of roaming Ukrainian fairs to Nozdryov's habits.
Reading notes
- To N. A. Leikin, 29 March 1888. Moscow. §8 in the manner of Nozdryov
Nozdryov, the blustering, restless landowner from Gogol's Dead Souls (1842), known for his compulsive fair-going, gambling, and horse-trading; Chekhov jokingly likens his planned summer of roaming Ukrainian fairs to Nozdryov's habits.
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 31 March 1888. Moscow. §4 Nozdryov
The blustering landowner of Gogol's Dead Souls, invoked to characterize the small, rowdy provincial towns near Chekhov's new dacha.
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 30 September 1889. Moscow. §8 a Nozdryov-like recklessness
"ноздревский задор" (nozdrevsky zador), literally "Nozdryov-ish zeal/impetuosity" -- a self-deprecating comparison to Nozdryov, the blustering, compulsively spendthrift landowner of Gogol's "Dead Souls", who squanders money on fairs, gambling, and horse-trading the moment it is in hand. Chekhov uses the adjectival coinage to describe his own itch to spend as soon as he has cash lying in his desk, which is why he is asking Pleshcheyev to arrange for his fee to be paid in monthly installments rather than a lump sum. Rendered as "Nozdryov-like recklessness" to keep the proper-name allusion visible in translation rather than flattening it to a generic "reckless" or "spendthrift."