person
Suvorina
also: Сувориха
A female relative of Chekhov's publisher-patron Aleksei Suvorin (the colloquial feminine "Сувориха"), whose sister's husband paid Chekhov a New Year's visit in Moscow, obliging him to return the call and meet her sister and mother.
Reading notes
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 17 January 1887. Moscow. §12 Suvorina
"Сувориха," a colloquial feminine form of the name Suvorin -- here a female relative of Aleksei Suvorin, whose sister's husband had paid Chekhov a courtesy visit over the holidays, obliging him to return the call.
- To M. P. Chekhova, 14 July 1888. Feodosia. §7 Madame Suvorin
"Суво-риха" (Suvorikha), a colloquial feminine formation on the Suvorin name (compare the family slang elsewhere in the corpus), used affectionately here for Suvorin's wife; the hyphen in the source appears to be a compositor's line-break artifact rather than a deliberate spelling.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 17 October 1889. Moscow. §5 "Так вот какой Суворин! Вот какая его жена! Гмс. Скажите, а мы и не знали".
The imagined public reaction Chekhov puts in scare-quotes -- gawking at Suvorin and his wife (Anna Ivanovna Suvorina) as if the play's unflattering lead exposed some hidden truth about their marriage -- dramatizes exactly the gossip-driven misreading Chekhov is refuting throughout this section.