R S Gwynn wrote in response to JM [There are
many references to Hitchcock in KQK, from the title of one of his movies "Shadow
of a Doubt" (page 847) to "Psycho": there is Frau Kamelspinner, the
taxidermist's wife ( page 759) and the obvious inexistent wife of Enricht
Pharsin.] The Hitchcock refs in KQKn would have to have
been anachronistically added, though the scene with Enricht's wife is
eerily like Psycho. Someone who has the Russian text would have to address
this. The addition of the anagrammatic name of the couple at the seaside
appears only in the translation; they were unnamed in the original.What edition
do your page numbers refer to?
A.
Bouazza: ... the similarites between Enricht and "Psycho", something which I
pointed out in my posting of December 23, 2002. Assuming that VN did not add
that bit in his English version but is to be found in the Russian original, I
don't think the allusion is to Hitchcock's adaptation of Robert Bloch's 1959
homonymous novel...{...}Genuine writing of genius contains some prophetical
seed.
Jansy Mello: How
delightful! Thank you both for correcting my mistake with the dates on VN's
novel apparent reference to Hitchcock and A.H's actual movie adaptation of
R.Bloch's 1959 novel.
Someone with the Russian
1926/27 text could help clarify this example, indeed.
Sorry, Abdel, for appropriating your idea unawares - and missing the point
you made about the dates which, if Pharsin is mentioned in a
similar way in the Russian version, shall confirm your sentence
about genius and a prophetical seed ( and isn't this
interesting to come across when set alongside SS's discussion of "life
imitating art"? VN observed a coincidence with "Laughter in the Dark"
and the name of the actress Ana Karina ( didn't check the actress'
name and the story in full).
The edition I quote from is the
one from Collin Collector's Choice (CCC, 1979), which carries
several printing mistakes and has not the Montreux foreword. The latter I
got only in the translation into Portuguese, so I think that my
second references comes from a different edition in English.
The foreword describes the
first three cards as King,Queen,Knave (or Jack) of "hearts" ( in Brazil
these can be designated either as "hearts" or as "cups"!).
It also mentions "a couple that was discarded" ( VN and Véra?) before drawing
two other cards.
He writes about a "toad
face" ( similar to Martha's later in the novel?), and informs us that it
corresponds to a Russian expression. Next he salutes the reader with Jingle
Bells ( a joker's?), but VN's allusions seem to be to the game of
Poker.
Old Enricht, El-Pharsin "could make
things change". If the eerie resemblance to Hitchcock is merely a resemblance
and not a quote, then we must figure out what this inexistent Mrs.
Pharsin represented in the novel: a rejected card? A
hoax?
Also R S Gwynn's question has to be readdressed:
what do the two Vivians mean? One comes from the anagram. The other
indicates a small boy who Dreyer initially suspects to be his bastard
son with Erica ( she denies it).