Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0025582, Tue, 5 Aug 2014 22:22:20 +0300

Subject
Lute, Chose, Venezia Rossa, Man in Ada
Date
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In 1885, having completed his prep-school education, he [Van] went up to Chose University in England, where his fathers had gone, and traveled from time to time to London or Lute (as prosperous but not overrefined British colonials called that lovely pearl-gray sad city on the other side of the Channel). (1.28)

Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): Lute: from 'Lutece,' ancient name of Paris.

In Kuprin's essay Parizh domashniy ("The Domestic Paris," 1927) pere la Cerise, an expert in horse races, mentions the prize 'Lutece:'

– Вы хотите непременно выиграть на первом месте в призе "Лютеция", – говорит пер-ля-Сериз, щуря свои тяжеловекие, лукавые глаза, – нет ничего легче. Поставьте сразу на все восемь лошадей. Выигрыш несомненен.

Kuprin's pere la Cerise brings to mind Cerisier, the French politician in Aldanov's novel Peshchera ("The Cave," 1936). In his speech at the international socialist conference Cerisier uses the word choses (things):

— …Et cette Republique des Soviets, — говорил он необычайно мягко, склонив голову на бок. — Camarade, ai-ie besoin de dire que je ne suis pas ni bolchevik, ni bolchevisant?— Он даже слабо засмеялся: так невероятно было подобное предположение. — Il у a certainement des choses que nous autres, Occidentaux, ne saurions ni comprendre ni accepter — Улыбка стёрлась с его лица, оно приняло грустное и нахмуренное выражение: под этим choses Серизье разумел большевистский террор. "...under this choses Cerisier meant the Bolshevist terror." (Part One, chapter XXVIII)

Aldanov is the author of Myslitel' ("The Thinker," 1921-27), a tetralogy about the Great French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. On Antiterra France is a part of the British Commonwealth since 1815 (in our world, the year of the Battle of Waterloo lost by Napoleon):

Among the servants, fifteen at least were of French extraction - descendants of immigrants who had settled in America after England had annexed their beautiful and unfortunate country in 1815. To interview them all - torture the males, rape the females - would be, of course, absurd and degrading. (1.40)

The servants of French extraction at Ardis include Kim Beauharnais, the kitchen boy and photographer, and Bouteillan, the butler. Josephine Beauharnais (known on Antiterra as "Queen Josephine," 1.5) was Napoleon's first wife. The name Bouteillan comes from bouteille (Fr., bottle). In "The Domestic Paris" Kuprin compares the big blue-red nose of pere la Cerise to that of Bardolph, Prince Henry's boon companion in Shakespeare's Henry IV:

Нос у пер-ля-Сериз'а и правда замечательный: большущий, круглый, сизо-красный, сияющий. У Шекспира Бардольф, кабацкий приятель беспутного принца Гарри, вероятно, обладал таким же носом:
"...Когда спускаешься с Бардольфом в винный погреб, не надо брать с собою фонаря..."
("When you go down with Bardolph into a wine cellar, you don't have to take a lantern with you...")

One is reminded of Sore, the Burgundian night watchman at Ardis, and his emerald lantern:

At nightfall - if Marina was not around, drinking, say, with her guests under the golden globes of the new garden lamps that glowed here and there in the sudden greenery, and mingled their kerosene reek with the breath of heliotrope and jasmine - the lovers could steal out into the deeper darkness and stay there until the nocturna - a keen midnight breeze - came tumbling the foliage 'troussant la raimee,' as Sore, the ribald night watchman, expressed it. Once, with his emerald lantern, he had stumbled upon them and several times a phantom Blanche had crept past them, laughing softly, to mate in some humbler nook with the robust and securely bribed old glowworm. (1.34)

It is Blanche, a French handmaid at Ardis, who slipped the anonymous note into a pocket of Van's dinner jacket (1.40). In "The Domestic Paris" Kuprin mentions rue Docteur Blanche in Passy (a district in Paris):

Совсем недавно, лишь прошлым летом, архитектор Маллэ-Стивенс построил на улице Доктор Бланш в модном вкусе архитектурное недоразумение, на которое и до сих пор, ещё в декабре, приезжают поудивляться дальние парижане. О нём много говорили в газетах. По-моему, такое здание охотно одобрил бы для торговых бань в "каирском стиле" московский купец с модернистским уклоном. Кроме того, оно сбоку похоже своими узкими, длинными, забранными решёткой окнами на тамбовскую тюрьму, с фасада же напоминает: отчасти небрежно начертанную крестословицу, а отчасти табачную фабрику с гаражами внизу.
According to Kuprin, the facade of the building erected by Mallet-Stevens resembles a negligently drawn krestoslovitsa (crossword puzzle).

The word krestoslovitsa was invented by VN:

Best of all, I used to compose for a daily emigre paper, the Berlin Rul', the first Russian crossword puzzles, which I baptized krestoslovitsi. (Speak, Memory, Chapter Fourteen, 2)

Pere la Cerise brings to mind not only Cerisier in Aldanov's Peshchera, but also Marx pere in Ada:

Van Veen [as also, in his small way, the editor of Ada] liked to change his abode at the end of a section or chapter or even paragraph, and he had almost finished a difficult bit dealing with the divorce between time and the contents of time (such as action on matter, in space, and the nature of space itself) and was contemplating moving to Manhattan (that kind of switch being a reflection of mental rubrication rather than a concession to some farcical 'influence of environment' endorsed by Marx pere, the popular author of 'historical' plays), when he received an unexpected dorophone call which for a moment affected violently his entire pulmonary and systemic circulation. (2.5)

"Marx pere, the popular author of 'historical' plays," seems to hint at Shakespeare ("Shaxpere"), the author of history plays (with Henry IV being one of them). In his essay Dyuma-otets ("Dumas pere," 1930) Kuprin mentions Karl Marx and Shakespeare:

Однако я знавал немало людей "с убеждениями", которые для виду держали на полках Маркса, Чернышевского и Михайловского, а в укромном уголке хранили потихоньку полное собрание Дюма в сафьяновых переплётах. Леонид Андреев, человек высокого таланта и глубоких страданий, не раз говорил, что Дюма - самый любимый его писатель. Молодой Горький тоже обожал Дюма.
I knew a lot of people "with principles" who for the sake of appearances had on their bookshelves Marx, Chernyshevski and Mikhaylovski but in a secret nook kept the complete works of Dumas in morocco binding. Dumas was Leonid Andreev's favorite writer. Young Gorky also adored Dumas.

С самых давних времён весьма много было говорено о вольном и невольном плагиате, о литературных "неграх", о пользовании чужими, хотя бы очень старыми, хотя бы совсем забытыми, хотя бы никогда не имевшими успеха сюжетами и так далее. Шекспир по этому поводу говорил:
- Я беру моё добро там, где его нахожу.
Дюма на ту же самую тему сказал с истинно французской образностью:
- Сделал ли я плохо, если, встретив прекрасную девушку в грязной, грубой и тёмной компании, я взял её за руку и ввёл в порядочное общество?
И не Наполеон ли обронил однажды жестокое слово:
- Я пользуюсь славою тех, которые её недостойны. Коллективное творчество имеет множество видов, условий и оттенков. Во всяком случае, на фасаде выстроенного дома ставит своё имя архитектор, а не каменщик, и не маляры, и не землекопы.
Kuprin attributes Moliere's words "je prends mon bien ou je le trouve" to Shakespeare and Shakespeare's reply to the accusations of plagiarism to Dumas. He then quotes Napoleon's cruel words about fame and adds that it is the architect - not house-painters and navvies - who leaves his name on the facade of the building he erected.

Accroding to Serebrov ("On Chekhov," III), Chekhov compared a novel to a palace (one has to be a good architect in order to build a good novel):

Чтобы строить роман, необходимо хорошо знать закон симметрии и равновесия масс. Роман – это целый дворец, и надо, чтобы читатель чувствовал себя в нём свободно, не удивлялся бы и не скучал, как в музее.

According to Suvorin, Chekhov planned to write a novel whose hero lives a hundred years and participates in all the events of the 19th century:

Несколько раз он развивал передо мною широкую тему романа с полуфантастическим героем, который живёт целый век и участвует во всех событиях XIX века.

Van Veen (1870-1967), the narrator and main character of Ada, lives almost a whole century. Lenin and VN's father were born in 1870. Ada almost shares her birthday (July 21) with that of VDN (July 20). VN's birthday (April 23) almost coincides with that of Lenin (April 22).

Chose is Van's University. The last part of Gorky's autobiographical trilogy is entitled Moi universitety ("My Universities," 1914). In Goky's "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1925-36) Paris is at least once jokingly called Lyutecia. The novel's character include Vladimir Lyutov (a rich merchant who commits suicide and whose name comes from lyutyi, "ferocious, fierce, cruel"). Gorky's hero is a namesake of Baron Klim Avidov "who once catapulted with an uppercut an unfortunate English tourist into the porter's lodge for his jokingly remarking how clever it was to drop the first letter of one's name in order to use it as a particule, at the Gritz, in Venezia Rossa." (1.36) In his essay Venezia ("Venice," 1912) Kuprin mentions the Doge's Palace:

Наконец, вот и знаменитый Дворец дожей. Он мне казался раньше красивым, покамест в Петербурге, на Морской, банкир Вавельберг не устроил себе торгового дома - неудачную копию венецианского дворца.
Но внутри этот дворец просто удивителен: он совмещает в себе одновременно простоту, изящество и ту скромную роскошь, которая переживает века. Эти кресла двенадцати дожей, из свиной кожи, тисненной золотом, эти мраморные наличники, эта бронза на потолках, эта удивительная мозаика, составляющая пол, эти тяжёлые дубовые двери благородного, стройного рисунка - прямо восхищение! Каждая, даже самая мелочная деталь носит на себе отпечаток вкуса и длительно терпеливой, художественной работы. Простой стальной ключ, всунутый в замок двери, отчеканен рукой великолепного мастера, который, может быть, даже не оставил своего имени истории, и я должен, к моему стыду, признаться, что только большое усилие воли помешало мне украсть этот ключ на память о Венеции.
Kuprin nearly stole a key of one the heavy oak doors in the Doge's Palace.

Klyuch ("The Key," 1929) is the first novel of Aldanov's trilogy (Klyuch, Begstvo, Peshchera). In the trilogy's last novel, "The Cave," Braun says in reply to Musya's question what is he heading for: "for Pere Lachaise:"

На что же вы теперь ориентируетесь? - опять шутливо подчеркнула она учёное слово, которое умным людям в разговоре упоминать не надо.
- Я? На Пер-Лашез. (Part Two, XXV)

Pere Lachaise is the largest cemetry in Paris. So much for the immortality! Btw., Aldanov is the author of Povest' o smerti ("The Tale about Death," 1947-50). Its main character is Balzac, the author of Pere Goriot (1835), a novel included in the Scenes de la vie privee section of his novel sequence La Comedie humaine. The latter title is a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy. Its first part, "The Inferno," translates to Russian as Ad. Aqua's suicide note is signed:

My sister's sister who teper'
iz ada ('now is out of hell'). (1.3)

ad = da = dar - r (da - yes; dar - gift)
Sore = Eros = rose
Baron Klim Avidov = Vladimir Nabokov
gordo = gorod (gordo - proudly; gorod - city)

Other excruciations replaced her [Aqua's] namesake's loquacious quells so completely that when, during a lucid interval, she happened to open with her weak little hand a lavabo cock for a drink of water, the tepid lymph replied in its own lingo, without a trace of trickery or mimicry: Finito! It was now the forming of soft black pits (yami, yamishchi) in her mind, between the dimming sculptures of thought and recollection, that tormented her phenomenally; mental panic and physical pain joined black-ruby hands, one making her pray for sanity, the other, plead for death. (1.3)

Yama ("The Pit," 1909-15) is Kuprin's novel about brothels. Ruby Black is Van's wet-nurse mentioned by Aqua in her suicide note:

Similarly, chelovek (human being) must know where he stands and let others know, otherwise he is not even a klok (piece) of a chelovek, neither a he, nor she, but 'a tit of it' as poor Ruby, my little Van, used to say of her scanty right breast.

Chelovek (1903) is a poem in prose by Gorky. In a letter of April 13, 1904, to Amfiteatrov, Chekhov (who signed some of his early stories "My brother's brother") compares Gorky's Chelovek to a sermon of a young priest:

Сегодня читал "Сборник" изд. "Знания", между прочим горьковского «Человека», очень напомнившего мне проповедь молодого попа, безбородого, говорящего басом, на о, прочел и великолепный рассказ Бунина «Чернозём».

Chekhov (who had less than three months of life) lived at the time in Yalta.

Of course, Tartary, an independent inferno, which at the time spread from the Baltic and Black seas to the Pacific Ocean, was touristically unavailable, though Yalta and Altyn Tagh sounded strangely attractive... (1.3)

Chelovek iz SSSR ("A Man from the USSR," 1926) is a play by VN. In Gorky's play Na dne ("At the Bottom") Satin says: Chelovek - eto zvuchit gordo ("a Man, this sounds proudly"). On Antiterra, New York is known as Manhattan and Manhattan is often shortened to "Man." Demon to Ada:

'The last time I enjoyed you,' said Demon 'was in April when you wore a raincoat with a white and black scarf and simply reeked of some arsenic stuff after seeing your dentist. Dr Pearlman has married his receptionist, you'll be glad to know. Now to business, my darling. I accept your dress' (the sleeveless black sheath), 'I tolerate your romantic hairdo, I don't care much for your pumps na bosu nogu (on bare feet), your Beau Masque perfume - passe encore, but, my precious, I abhor and reject your livid lipstick. It may be the fashion in good old Ladore. It is not done in Man or London.' (1.38)

Gorky entitled his essay on New York "Gorod zhyoltogo d'yavola" ("The City of Yellow Devil," 1906). Gorky's "yellow devil" is gold.

Flavita (Russian Scrabble) "was fashionable throughout Estoty and Canady around 1790, was revived by the 'Madhatters' (as the inhabitants of New Amsterdam were once called) in the beginning of the nineteenth century, made a great comeback, after a brief slump, around 1860, and now a century later seems to be again in vogue..." A set of Flavita was given to Marina's children by Baron Klim Avidov. Of the Flavita board's 225 squares "24 are brown, 12 black, 16 orange, 8 red, and the rest golden-yellow (i.e., flavid, in concession to the game's original name)." (1.36)

Finita la commedia!

Alexey Sklyarenko

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