person
Mlle Emilie (Suvorin household)
Emilie
also: Эмили, m-lle Эмили, Mesdemoiselles Emilie
A real household member of the Suvorins -- almost certainly a French governess or companion in their Moscow household -- whom Chekhov failed to say goodbye to before leaving, for fear she would cry; named alongside Adele in Chekhov's closing family regards. NON-CONFLATION: this is a REAL person, entirely distinct from this corpus's only other "Emilie" entity,, a FICTIONAL character (an old Frenchwoman/governess in Blagosvetlov's household) in the dramatis personae of "The Wood Demon" that Chekhov and Suvorin were drafting -- the shared name and shared governess role are coincidental. See glossary.json (loc 10) for the full disambiguation note.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 6 February 1889. Moscow. §10 let Mesdemoiselles Emilie and Adèle forgive me for not having said goodbye to them
REAL-VS-FICTIONAL EMILIE DISAMBIGUATION -- "Mesdemoiselles Emilie and Adele" here are REAL household members of the Suvorins (French governesses or companions in the Suvorin Moscow household, where Chekhov had evidently been staying or visiting) whom Chekhov failed to say goodbye to before leaving, for fear they would cry. They are catalogued here as two NEW real-person entities, and. This "Emilie" must NOT be conflated with this corpus's ONLY other existing "Emilie" entity, -- a FICTIONAL character (an old Frenchwoman and governess in the household of Blagosvetlov) in the dramatis personae Chekhov and Suvorin were drafting for "The Wood Demon", first attested at.
- To A. S. Suvorin, May 1889. Sumy. §10 Last night I dreamed of Mlle Emilie
AMBIGUOUS -- GENUINELY UNRESOLVED, DOCUMENTED RATHER THAN SILENTLY RESOLVED. Two distinct "Emilie" entities already exist in this corpus and both are plausible referents here: (1), a real governess/companion in the Suvorin household, first attested at, where Chekhov also names her alongside Adele in a closing-regards context; and (2), a FICTIONAL character (an old Frenchwoman/governess in Blagosvetlov's household) in the dramatis personae of "The Wood Demon" that Chekhov and Suvorin were drafting at this very time -- and which this SAME letter mentions two sections earlier, in §9 ("My 'Wood Demon' is coming along nicely"). Arguments for the real governess: this line falls among personal family regards (Anna Ivanovna, Nastya, Borya, then Emilie) rather than amid any play-business discussion, matching the pattern of's real-Emilie mention; a dream about a household acquaintance one has personal regard for is also the more natural reading of a stray, unexplained "Why? I don't know." Arguments for the fictional character: the immediately preceding §9 has just put "The Wood Demon" and its cast on Chekhov's mind, and dreaming about a character one is actively drafting is not an implausible authorial experience; Chekhov gives no possessive or other marker (e.g. no "chez Suvorin" framing) that would settle it either way. This entity's own summary already flags the ambiguity generically; this note additionally flags that THIS letter is the specific case where the two candidate readings are closest in surface plausibility, because both entities are independently active in the same document (§9 vs §10).