Alexey wrote: "In Ada (Part One, ch. 17), Pushkin is made to exclaim
"Sladko! (Sweet!)" when he is bitten by mosquitoes of a different
species (i. e. notšthe Ardis Culex chateaubriandi) in
Yukonsk..."
š
In a message posted on 30 Nov. 2006, John
Rea wrote:š"Some scholars have naughtily
suggested that John Donne's little poem "The Flea" used a 'long s' intentionally for its
ambiguities in the lines that go, "It sucked me first, and now sucks
thee, and in this flea our two bloods mingled
be," wherein the mingled bodily fluids do nothing to block this
ambiguity. Go ahead and read the poem, consider the Chateaubriand
mosquito of Ada as like unto the flea, and
then for
practice type out mr Donne's ditty using the 'long s'.š Once you get
the hang of it, try it on Puck's song about the bee from
Midsummernight's Dream, unless posts like this one become Bard."
š
VN complained aboutšmosquitoesšdisturbingšhim in
France, most probablyšin Nice ( cf.šSpeak Memory) butšthisšis not
enough to bring up Chateaubriand to our minds.
Perhaps we should distinguish the links between
various mosquitošspecies and literary references, pointing to Russian
or to French authors, followingšAlexey's suggestions.š
š
Like Chateaubriand's,šADA is also aš"memoir in
progress",šthe process of writing itšvery slow and extendedšover
thešyears ( RC's were begunšin 1803 and finished inš 1822) andšreal
events were brought togetheršwith fiction. Juliette
( Mme Récamier), former lover and later platonic lovešof
R.Chateaubriandšgathered the most illustrious members of the parisian
societyšin her literaty salon (šat the Chaussée d' Antin, former rue
Mont Blanc, Parisš) to hearšChateaubriand's " Mémoires
d'Outre-tombe"šnew chapters beingšread.š