I can add to Jansy's observations that in Apollinaire's Alcools (that failed to intoxicate me, alas) there is a section entitled Rhénanes ("The Rhine Verses"). Btw., the title of Apollinaire's book reminds me of Chekhov's complaint (in a letter to his friend and editor Suvorin) that contemporary literature lacks alcohol that would intoxicate the reader* and of the advice the lawyer Lysevich gives to his client in Chekhov's story "Бабье царство" (The Women's Realm). Lysevich (whose name** and profession remind one of Ada's Judge Bald) suggests that to enjoy Maupassant (the only writer, except Jules Verne, whom L. sometimes reads) one has to drink him. In my in-vino-veritas article, I followed Lysevich's advice tasting as many authors as I could. I would compare Maupassant to a watered claret, Chekhov's younger friend Gorky (whose penname means "bitter") to a stale Volgan beer, while Shakespeare, Pushkin and Nabokov offer the reader much stronger liquors (Ada is absolute alcohol, the so-called izvin', that one drinks, thanks to the distiller's skills, easily, as if it were champagne, and has no hangover afterwards).

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