person

Victorien Sardou

Sardou

also: Сарду

The immensely popular and prolific French playwright of well-made melodramas, widely translated and staged in Russia; a mummer's false claim of personal correspondence with him serves as his chief (bogus) credential.

Reading notes

To V. A. Tikhonov, 19 January 1889. Petersburg. §2 the Russian Sardou
A joking epithet for Tikhonov, comparing him to Victorien Sardou, the prolific and commercially successful French dramatist of the period; the nickname plays on Tikhonov's own busy output as a playwright and is not a literal claim of comparable stature.
To V. A. Tikhonov, 13 September 1889. Moscow. §3 Russian Sardou
A joking nickname for Tikhonov, comparing him to Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), the immensely popular and prolific French playwright of well-made boulevard melodramas -- a needling compliment on Tikhonov's own prolific play-writing.
To V. A. Tikhonov, 11 November 1889. Moscow. §2 Monsieur Sardou
A joking nickname for Tikhonov, reusing the running comparison to Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), the immensely popular and prolific French playwright of well-made boulevard melodramas -- here compressed into a mock-formal salutation.
To V. A. Tikhonov, 7 December 1889. Moscow. §3 Dear Sardou
Continues the running joke-nickname for Tikhonov, teasing him as a "Russian Sardou" after the prolific French playwright Victorien Sardou; see the same running gag in.
To V. A. Tikhonov, 3 March 1890. Moscow. §3 Russian Sardou
A teasing epithet comparing Tikhonov to Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), the immensely prolific and popular French playwright of well-made melodramas, widely translated and staged in Russia. The joke turns on Tikhonov's own facility and productivity as a dramatist, not on any particular resemblance of subject or style.