person
Protopopov
also: Протопопов
A contemporary journalist and critic whose articles the narrator's female acquaintances cite as revelatory, used here as a stock name for the kind of fashionable critic whose opinions substitute for independent thought.
Reading notes
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 15 September 1888. Moscow. §9 Протопоповым или Impacatus'ом
Two names Chekhov cites dismissively as inadequate replacements for the departing critic Mikhailovsky at "Severny Vestnik": the journalist Protopopov, and a writer using the pen name "Impacatus" (Latin for "unrestrained" or "unchecked"), otherwise unidentified in the corpus.
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 13 November 1888. Moscow. §8 Protopopov's articles
Protopopov, a "Severny Vestnik" contributor already catalogued in this corpus; Chekhov cites his articles sarcastically as a parallel case for the disputed editorial-note practice, proposing every one of them be given the same disclaimer treatment he objects to for Merezhkovsky's piece.
- To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 26 June 1889. Sumy. §13 From Protopopov's criticism
The critic whose earlier departure from "Severny Vestnik" was noted with distaste in; his "return" here is consistent with that prior departure. Chekhov's blunt dismissal of contemporary critics generally ("not worth a copper farthing," "an utterly useless breed") is translated at full force per this corpus's policy on period-typical bluntness rather than softened.
- In Moscow §32 Protopopov
A contemporary journalist and critic whose articles the narrator's female acquaintances cite as revelatory -- a stock name for the fashionable critic whose opinions substitute for independent thought.