person
Nikulina's husband
"Krechinsky"
also: mari d'elle
Nikulina's unnamed husband, never given his real name in the letter; Chekhov nicknames him "Krechinsky" (after the swindler-hero of Sukhovo-Kobylin's comedy) as a joke at the expense of his moneyed, side-whiskered, ex-"remount-officer" manner. The nickname is a literary jab, not an identification of his actual name.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 18 December 1888. Moscow. §16 In comes Krechinsky -- the very type of a moneyed remount-officer, with side-whiskers and gray hair. This is mari d'elle {her husband (French).}.
NEW ENTITY, WITH FLAG -- Nikulina's husband is never given his real name anywhere in the letter. Chekhov nicknames him "Krechinsky" (linked separately to, the swindler-hero of Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin's 1855 comedy "Krechinsky's Wedding") purely as a literary joke at the husband's expense -- a plausible, moneyed, side-whiskered ex-"remount-officer" type -- and NOT as an identification with the real person's name. The French tag "mari d'elle" ("her husband") is preserved in the original French with a bracketed gloss, per the convention already established for the same phrase in's translated letter.