ADA contains at least one allusion
to Comtesse de Segur's childrens books. Does anyone out there know whether
there is a "Burning Barn" scene in any of them? ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear
Don,
The Comtesse de Segur (nee Rostopchina) may or may not have
written about fictional fires, but she does, through her father, the mayor of
Moscow during the War of 1812, have a connection to a very famous fire.
Count Rostopchin famously was accused of starting the fire that burned
the city. When he was in France he willingly accepted credit; upon his
return to Russia he refused the responsibility. Historians remain divided
too.
I thought I had spotted a reference to the famous literary victim of
that fire (the early ms of Slovo o Polku Igoreve, translated by VN into
English as The Song of Igor's Campaign), somewhere in Ada, but don't
recall it now.* So this may be part of what Boyd calls "a motif"
here..
Carolyn
*It was Alexey Sklyarenko who found the allusion:
"I spotted at least one allusion to Slovo in Ada: ...freckled
red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse (3.5). It's a play on Hors,
presumably the Slav god of sun, who is mentioned in Slovo."