Immediately after submitting my latest message
to the List I realized that Oscar Nattochdag (nicknamed Netochka) was a
namesake of Oscar Wilde. Like Dostoevsky (the author of "Netochka Nezvanov"),
Wilde served a prison sentence. He went to jail for being a homosexual (or,
rather, bisexual). Interestingly, it is Dr Nattochdag who urges Kinbote (who has
the same inclinations as Wilde) to be more careful (because "a boy had
complained to his adviser"). Natt och
dag means "night and day" in Swedish and that phrase occurs at least three
times in Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol ("He does not sit with
silent men / Who watch him night and day"; "Or else he sat with those
who watched / His anguish night and day"; "For they starve
the little frightened child / Till it weeps both night and
day").
I recall that Carolyn Kunin recommended to the
List "The Picture of Dorian Gray" but can't remember why she wanted us to
read it? Because of Sybil Vane, a character in Wilde's novel who commits a
suicide (as does her namesake in VN's story The Vane
Sisters)? The name of Shade's wife is also Sybil, of course.
Alexey Sklyarenko