or those not old enough to remember, my thesis was, and still is, that
the genesis of
was VN's attempt to recreate for a
contemporary reading public the thrill that the original audience for
experienced in discovering that the bizarre and horrid Mr Hyde
was indeed an aspect of the respected Dr Jekyll.
I recently asked the question, if not on the List then in private
correspondence, in regards to the familial relationship of Nabokov and
Diaghilev the same question: "why hide?". Why does VN never express towards
Diaghilev the pride he displays in other member of his family? Why in fact is
the relationship hidden? And why does he, Diaghilev, come out,* in the
character of Dangle Leaf, in Ada? After dipping into Boyd's the
American Years and Beth's Ballets Russes article I think I know the
answer, to wit, VN's well-known homophobia (a politically invented concept I
think, but here apropos).
It turns out that VN's homosexual younger brother, the unfortunate
Sergei, was a member of the Diaghilev coterie, a very gay coterie as we all
know. We also know that VN's relationship with this brother was a fraught,
even tortured one of guilt and shame. There are hints in Pale Fire that
Shade has or has had, a younger brother. Kinbote is that homosexual
brother and double that Shade cannot acknowledge.
In his lecture on J&H VN goes so far as to posit the
possibility that the unspeakable nature of Hyde's crimes was homosexuality.
Isn't it possible that Diaghilev/Dangle Leaf and Sergei/Kinbote represent VN's
repression, or at the very least inability to deal with, homosexuality in his
family and very possibly in himself?
Any comments? is it possible that I have discovered the so-long missing
link in VN's biography and work?
Carolyn Kunin
* no pun was intended - but there it is!