person
Maria Vishnevskaya
Vishnevskaya
also: Висновская, Vishnevskaya, Wisnowska
The victim in the notorious Warsaw criminal case discussed in Chekhov's letters: a young actress killed by her lover Bartenev in 1890, whose tangled personal life became a sensational subject in the press. Chekhov calls the psychological puzzle of her life too complex for anyone but Dostoevsky to untangle, and discourages Shavrova from trying to fictionalize it.
Reading notes
- To Ye. M. Shavrova, 28 May 1891. Aleksin. §5 poor Vishnevskaya's life
Maria Vishnevskaya (Висновская in Chekhov's Russian, more commonly transliterated Wisnowska), the young woman killed by Bartenev in the Warsaw case; Chekhov judges the psychological tangle of her life too complex for any writer short of Dostoevsky to make sense of, and discourages Shavrova from attempting it secondhand.