But there is no resemblance whatever. By the way has anyone heard any of Nicholas's music? I have been meaning for some time to look (or listen rather) into it.

By the way, I have another question which perhaps M. Coutourier can answer. I have tried to find out in the archives or via google if VN ever expressed an opinion on le grand ecrivain, Colette. Next to Pushkin, she is my favorite writer. But of course the search engines seem to think (and they do seem to think) that you mean the short story. And since no one uses her former literary names (Willy, de Juvenal) it's impossible.

By the way, if N did not revere la grande dame, he should have. She and Pushkin are greatly alike. Both had African ancestry - in later years Madame even sported a red afro - but their temperaments and prose style are also of one kind.

But here's the kicker. I was at the Musee Colette in St Sauveur en Puisaye yesterday, and was reminded that when she was in her fifties, she seduced Juvenal's son Bertrand. He was sixteen, so hardly pederasty. But is this incest? I doubt it. And why did she do it? The books don't say. Lust presumably, but I doubt that too. Education sentimentale, peut-etre. Or revenge or a combination of the two. Qui le sait.

Carolyn