Ya. A. Korneev

Reading notes

• To M. V. Kiseleva, 13 September 1887. Moscow. §10 our Korneev calls the hyena

  An acquaintance of the Chekhov circle who supplies the nickname "the hyena" for the family's tailless dog; distinct from the Korneev after whom the family's Moscow apartment building was named.

• To N. A. Leikin, 12 August 1888. Sumy. §10 Yakov Alekseyevich Korneev

  The addressee for the requested book, at the Korneev house in Moscow; matches the corpus's existing "Ya. A. Korneev" entity (Yakov = Ya., Alekseyevich = A.).

• To A. S. Suvorin, 6 February 1889. Moscow. §5 the niece of our landlord Korneev

  NON-CONFLATION FLAG -- this Korneev is Chekhov's Moscow LANDLORD as of February 1889, a new letter-local entity. He is DISTINCT from two other Korneev entities already in this corpus: (the Kudrino-district apartment building the Chekhov family lived in during early 1887, named for its then-owner) and (an unrelated acquaintance, "Ya. A. Korneev," to whom Chekhov relays mocking regards via his family in). The surname recurs across this corpus attached to different people/places; none should be merged.

• To N. N. Obolonsky, 29 March 1889. Moscow. §4 I live on Kudrinskaya Sadovaya, in the house of Ya. A. Korneyev.

  This letter supplies the landlord's fuller initials, "Ya. A. Korneyev," for Chekhov's own Moscow residence on Kudrinskaya Sadovaya. Per the translator's report, these initials are identical to the existing corpus entity (first attested, there described as an unrelated acquaintance) and closely match the separate, not-yet-reconciled entity (Chekhov's landlord as of February 1889, first attested).

• To M. P. Chekhova, 26 April 1889. Sumy. §5 the Korneevs, the Lenskys

  "The Korneevs" (Корнеевым) are the family of Ya. A. Korneev, whose Moscow house on Kudrinskaya-Sadovaya the Chekhov family used as a mailing address, as this same letter's own envelope shows (section 15); "the Lenskys" (Ленским) most plausibly refers to the actor Alexander Lensky's circle, a family friend elsewhere in the corpus.

• To Ya. A. Korneyev, October 1889. Moscow. §2 Dearest Yakov Alexeyevich

  Renders "Добрейший Яков Алексеевич" (literally "Kindest/Most-good Yakov Alexeyevich"), a warm familiar salutation. The addressee is Ya. A. Korneyev, Chekhov's Moscow landlord on Kudrinskaya Sadovaya (established in and), here on evidently friendly, joking terms with his tenant.

• To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 17 March 1890. Moscow. §8 Korneev is being made an inspector of Moscow University

  Ya. A. Korneev, Chekhov's Moscow landlord (established at and elsewhere in this corpus), is here reported gaining the university inspectorship vacated by Dobrov -- "a general's post" in the civil-service table of ranks, hence Korneev's "triumphant" mood. Chekhov's closing aside in this section -- that he will look for another flat if his landlord starts drafting papers in the same bad style -- treats the promotion as faintly ominous news for his own domestic arrangements as much as a piece of university gossip.

• To F. O. Shekhtel, 7 January 1891. Moscow. §2 My Moscow address is no longer Korneyev's but a new one now

  "не корнеевский" ("no longer Korneyev's") is the adjectival possessive of Ya. A. Korneyev's surname, referring to the Kudrinskaya Sadovaya apartment the Chekhov family had rented from him; by this letter they have already moved to the Firgang house on Malaya Dmitrovka, so Chekhov is correcting an address Shekhtel might still have on file for him rather than reporting a move in progress.