Subject
Revolution vs. Revelation
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Van Veen states in Ada (1.3): "Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution."
Revelation and Revolution are also paired in Turgenev's Smoke (ch. VIII): "One foreign diplomatist, hearing she [Irina Osinin, the novel's heroine who created a furore at the court ball] was a Moscow girl, said to the Tsar: 'Sire,' he said, 'decidement c'est Moscou qui est le centre de votre empire!' and another diplomatist added: 'C'est une vraie revolution, Sire--revelation or revolution . . .' something of that sort."
Turgenev's novel is once mentioned in Ada (1.21): "As to dear, frivolous Marina, she only remarked, when consulted, that at Van's age she would have poisoned her governess with anti-roach borax if forbidden to read, for example, Turgenev's Smoke."
When Dolly Durmanov gave her daughters the names Aqua and Marina, Dolly's husband wondered: "why not Tofana?" (1.1). Tofana was a lady from Palermo who sold poison, the so-called aqua tofana. As I pointed out earlier, das Aquatofana der Verleumdung ("the aqua tofana of slander") is mentioned in Heine's "Ludwig Boerne". In the same work (Book Three) Heine writes:
"Eine Revolution ist ein Unglueck, aber ein noch groesseres Unglueck ist eine verunglueckte Revolution..." (Revolution is a disaster, but even more disastrous is a failed revolution)
The Russian 1917 Revolution ending in the Bolshevist coup d'etat was a failed one. Ada's L disaster that happened on Antiterra in the middle of the 19th century and was followed by the years of Great Revelation seems to have little to do with Russia's tragic fate in the 20th century. All the same, one feels that the mysterious disaster's initial hints, among other things and names, at Lenin.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Revelation and Revolution are also paired in Turgenev's Smoke (ch. VIII): "One foreign diplomatist, hearing she [Irina Osinin, the novel's heroine who created a furore at the court ball] was a Moscow girl, said to the Tsar: 'Sire,' he said, 'decidement c'est Moscou qui est le centre de votre empire!' and another diplomatist added: 'C'est une vraie revolution, Sire--revelation or revolution . . .' something of that sort."
Turgenev's novel is once mentioned in Ada (1.21): "As to dear, frivolous Marina, she only remarked, when consulted, that at Van's age she would have poisoned her governess with anti-roach borax if forbidden to read, for example, Turgenev's Smoke."
When Dolly Durmanov gave her daughters the names Aqua and Marina, Dolly's husband wondered: "why not Tofana?" (1.1). Tofana was a lady from Palermo who sold poison, the so-called aqua tofana. As I pointed out earlier, das Aquatofana der Verleumdung ("the aqua tofana of slander") is mentioned in Heine's "Ludwig Boerne". In the same work (Book Three) Heine writes:
"Eine Revolution ist ein Unglueck, aber ein noch groesseres Unglueck ist eine verunglueckte Revolution..." (Revolution is a disaster, but even more disastrous is a failed revolution)
The Russian 1917 Revolution ending in the Bolshevist coup d'etat was a failed one. Ada's L disaster that happened on Antiterra in the middle of the 19th century and was followed by the years of Great Revelation seems to have little to do with Russia's tragic fate in the 20th century. All the same, one feels that the mysterious disaster's initial hints, among other things and names, at Lenin.
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/