Lyubov' accuses her husband, the portrait painter
Troshcheykin, of being an egoist (The Event, Act Three):
Ты чёрств, холоден, мелочен, нравственно
вульгарен, ты эгоист, какого свет ещё не видал.
...в самом большом несчастье такой
эгоист, как ты, всегда отыщет себе последний верный оплот в
самом себе.
In a letter of September 1, 1893, to Lika Mizinov (an
attractive blonde) Chekhov suggests that she names her little dog Egoism:
"Милая Лика, Вы выудили из словаря
иностранных слов слово эгоизм и угощаете им меня в каждом письме. Назовите этим
словом Вашу собачку."
The pair of Dr Chekhov's dachshunds (the grandparents of the
Nabokovs' Box II) had "medical" names Quina and Brom. "Little Brom"and
blondinka s bolonkoy (the blonde with a lap-dog) are mentioned by
Barboshin, the private detective whom Troshcheykin hired to protect
his and his wife's lives from Barbashin.
Eleonora Shnap, the midwife who visits Lyubov' and
offers her former patient a feigned comfort, reminds one of O. L.
Knipper's dog Shnap that should comfort the emaciated Chekhov
(Knipper's very ill husband) as he climbed the stairs (taking rest at each
landing and turn of the stairs) to his fourth store
appartment.
Alexey Sklyarenko