Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin

Reading notes

• The Summer Girl §52 Pushkin

  Alexander Pushkin, Russia's foundational poet; the husband's vague, secondhand praise ("very funny things... I remember") underscores that he has not actually read him with any attention.

• The Duel §261 Pushkin

  Alexander Pushkin, Russia's national poet; von Koren cites his verse to rebuke Laevsky's contempt for descriptive writing, and a Pushkin poem later serves as the section's epigraph.

• Poems and Dubia (school-age and disputed juvenilia) §1361 a poet who has already died as far as the genial average citizen is concerned

  A sarcastic mock footnote ("Ed. note") aimed at middlebrow readers who treat even Pushkin as safely dead literary furniture rather than a living cultural force.

• Poems and Dubia (school-age and disputed juvenilia) §1693 I have raised myself a monument not made by hands

  Parodies the opening line of Pushkin's famous 1836 poem "Exegi monumentum," here deflated by putting it in the mouth of a tavern-keeping kulak boasting about his business.

• Poems and Dubia (school-age and disputed juvenilia) §1739 Public a du bon sens, mais en fait du gout a fait souvent

  A French bon mot attributed to Pushkin (via Baron Rosen's 1847 memoir), glossed in the footnote: the public has good sense but often goes wrong in matters of taste.

• Departed from Moscow: §14 Pushkin

  Russia's foundational Romantic poet, invoked by the illiterate self-promoting 'Velichkov' as the first in a self-flattering ranking that places his own name third after Pushkin and Lermontov.

• Gooseberries §42 Pushkin

  Russia's foundational national poet; Ivan Ivanych quotes him -- "dearer to us than hosts of truths is the deception that exalts us" -- to explain his brother's contentment with a plate of sour berries.

• M. P. §3 Pushkin's dark silhouette

  The Pushkin Monument, unveiled on Tverskoy Boulevard in 1880, three years before this story; by night its statue reads as a dark silhouette against the sky, a familiar Moscow landmark used here simply to fix the scene.

• Not in the Mood §44 Pushkin

  Alexander Pushkin, Russia's foundational Romantic poet; Prachkin's blank incomprehension of Pushkin's name is the story's final, deadpan measure of his boorishness.

• To M. Ye. Chekhov, 18 January 1887. Moscow. §8 The Pushkin promised by \textit{Luch}

  Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, Russia's national poet; the letter concerns a cut-price edition of his collected works then being marketed by two rival publishers, the journal Luch and Chekhov's own patron Suvorin.

• To N. A. Leikin, 8 February 1887. Moscow. §6 the requiem for Pushkin

  A panikhida (Orthodox memorial service) held in Moscow on the anniversary of Pushkin's death (29 January 1837, Old Style), part of the annual commemorations of the national poet.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 22–23 February 1887. Moscow. §10 I wrote to Suvorin about Pushkin.

  The matter concerns an edition of Pushkin's works Chekhov was lobbying Suvorin to expedite, evidently on behalf of the group of clinical physicians whose letter he mentions forwarding; compare the fuller account of this same episode in the companion letter.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 23 March 1887. Moscow. §4 the Pushkin I promised isn't printed yet

  Chekhov refers to a new, inexpensive edition of Pushkin's works he had promised to send Georgy; the first print run sold out in a single day, so that Chekhov could not obtain a copy even for himself, and a second run of 100,000 copies was in progress.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 12 August 1887. Babkino. §12 Pushkin

  Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin; Chekhov refers to a set or edition of Pushkin's works that his brothers had failed to secure while he was away, leaving the family to wait for a further printing.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 March 1888. Moscow. §16 Pushkin's

  Chekhov quotes the opening line of Pushkin's 1825 lyric "K***" ("I remember a wonderful moment"), addressed to Anna Kern, here applied comically to a week of society amusements rather than romantic memory.

• To A. S. Suvorin, 10 May 1891. Aleksin. §4 with loathing I read over my life

  A direct quotation from Pushkin's 1828 poem "Vospominanie" ("Remembrance"); Chekhov applies Pushkin's line about painful self-reckoning to his own recent European travels with Suvorin, using it to color his mixed nostalgia for Nice and Paris. See the paired allusions entry for the full attribution.

• The Fair §16 Pushkinian

  Russia's foundational Romantic poet (1799-1837); the narrator invokes his name as the byword for genuine wit against which the fairground clowns' stale routines are found wanting.