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Khodasevich in Pale Fire
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A few years ago, Oleg Dorman tried to draw our attention to the essay Muni (1926) included in Khodasevich's book of memoirs Necropolis (1939). Muni (S. V. Kissin, 1885-1916, who chose his pen-name, which almost became his real name, after Sakyamuni, one of the names of Buddha) was Khodasevich's best friend and alter ego who developed an alternative personality, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Beklemishev. In his turn, Beklemishev wrote the story Letom 190* goda ("In the summer of 190*," 1908), whose hero, Bolshakov, is tormented by passions and troubles and decides to find a new incarnation in sedate and happy Pereyaslavtsev. He succeeds at first but then begins to revolt and finally Pereyaslavtsev kills him. Recommending the story to Georgiy Chulkov, Akhramovich (a passionate Roman Catholic who later became a passionate Communist) described it as "Golyadkin [turned] inside-out." Golyadkin is the hero of Dostoevsky's The Double.
In his Foreword to Pale Fire Kinbote mentions his brown beard of a rather rich tint and texture. Khodasevich says of Muni that he used to conceal his hollow cheeks in a broad and thick beard. A Jew who was in the Russian army in the World War I (at first as a soldier and then as a staff officer), Muni sufferred a bad depression and committed a suicide in March, 1916, in Minsk. Instead of last note, he wrote the last poem (as Esenin and Mayakovsky later did), Samostrel'naya.
I'm not sure if it is important in the context of Pale Fire: like VDN, Nikolay Romanov (the last Russian tsar, with whose family Dr Botkin was executed) had five children.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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In his Foreword to Pale Fire Kinbote mentions his brown beard of a rather rich tint and texture. Khodasevich says of Muni that he used to conceal his hollow cheeks in a broad and thick beard. A Jew who was in the Russian army in the World War I (at first as a soldier and then as a staff officer), Muni sufferred a bad depression and committed a suicide in March, 1916, in Minsk. Instead of last note, he wrote the last poem (as Esenin and Mayakovsky later did), Samostrel'naya.
I'm not sure if it is important in the context of Pale Fire: like VDN, Nikolay Romanov (the last Russian tsar, with whose family Dr Botkin was executed) had five children.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/