person
Viktor Petrovich Korovin
Korovin
also: Виктор Петрович Коровин, Коровин, Леший (character), the Wood Demon (character)
Fictional landowner of about thirty to thirty-three, the title character "Wood Demon" of the play -- a poet and tree-planting idealist who feels nature with terrible intensity and believes forests are essential to civilization itself. The character's nickname/role, "the Wood Demon," must be kept distinct from the play's own working title of the same name; this character is the earliest ancestor of the figure Chekhov later substantially reworked into Astrov in "Uncle Vanya" (1897), though none of this letter's character names carry over into that later play. Coincidentally shares the first name and patronymic "Viktor Petrovich" with the real critic Viktor Petrovich Burenin, an incidental naming coincidence with no substantive connection.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 18 October 1888. Moscow. §8 Having seen and heard the Wood Demon, she gives herself over to passion
"The Wood Demon" here refers to the character Viktor Petrovich Korovin (introduced fully at \S10), using his in-play nickname rather than his name -- see the \S10 note for the play-title-versus-character-nickname distinction that governs every other use of the phrase "Wood Demon" in this letter.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 18 October 1888. Moscow. §10 Viktor Petrovich Korovin, a landowner of about thirty to thirty-three, the Wood Demon.
Every other occurrence of "the Wood Demon" in this letter (\S8, \S11 twice, \S14, \S16, \S18 twice) refers to the character Korovin, not the play, except where the context is explicitly about the manuscript/project itself. Separately: Korovin's given name and patronymic, "Viktor Petrovich," coincidentally match those of the real critic Viktor Petrovich Burenin, already established elsewhere in this corpus's Suvorin correspondence (e.g.) -- an incidental naming coincidence with no substantive connection; the two must not be conflated.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 18 October 1888. Moscow. §16 The Wood Demon is mine up through the fourth act
"The Wood Demon" refers to the character Korovin as a writing assignment -- Chekhov claims responsibility for drafting this character's material through most of the play -- not the play as a whole; see the \S10 note on keeping the two senses distinct.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 18 October 1888. Moscow. §18 I want the Wood Demon not to be alone on the stage
"The Wood Demon" again refers to the character Korovin, explaining Feodosy's dramaturgical function as a stage companion for him.