At the end of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) mentions butterflies and butterfly orchids in the margin of the romance:
Ardis Hall — the Ardors and Arbors of Ardis — this is the leitmotiv rippling through Ada, an ample and delightful chronicle, whose principal part is staged in a dream-bright America — for are not our childhood memories comparable to Vineland-born caravelles, indolently encircled by the white birds of dreams? The protagonist, a scion of one of our most illustrious and opulent families, is Dr Van Veen, son of Baron ‘Demon’ Veen, that memorable Manhattan and Reno figure. The end of an extraordinary epoch coincides with Van’s no less extraordinary boyhood. Nothing in world literature, save maybe Count Tolstoy’s reminiscences, can vie in pure joyousness and Arcadian innocence with the ‘Ardis’ part of the book. On the fabulous country estate of his art-collecting uncle, Daniel Veen, an ardent childhood romance develops in a series of fascinating scenes between Van and pretty Ada, a truly unusual gamine, daughter of Marina, Daniel’s stage-struck wife. That the relationship is not simply dangerous cousinage, but possesses an aspect prohibited by law, is hinted in the very first pages.
In spite of the many intricacies of plot and psychology, the story proceeds at a spanking pace. Before we can pause to take breath and quietly survey the new surroundings into which the writer’s magic carpet has, as it were, spilled us, another attractive girl, Lucette Veen, Marina’s younger daughter, has also been swept off her feet by Van, the irresistible rake. Her tragic destiny constitutes one of the highlights of this delightful book.
The rest of Van’s story turns frankly and colorfully upon his long love-affair with Ada. It is interrupted by her marriage to an Arizonian cattle-breeder whose fabulous ancestor discovered our country. After her husband’s death our lovers are reunited. They spend their old age traveling together and dwelling in the various villas, one lovelier than another, that Van has erected all over the Western Hemisphere.
Not the least adornment of the chronicle is the delicacy of pictorial detail: a latticed gallery; a painted ceiling; a pretty plaything stranded among the forget-me-nots of a brook; butterflies and butterfly orchids in the margin of the romance; a misty view descried from marble steps; a doe at gaze in the ancestral park; and much, much more. (5.6)
Darkbloom (‘Notes to Ada’): gamine: lassie.
Appias ada, the rare albatross, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It is found on the Moluccas, New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia and the Solomon Islands:
The rare albatross makes one think of L'Albatros, the second poem (it was translated into Russian by VN) in Baudelaire's collection Les Fleurs du Mal ("The Flowers of Evil," 1857). The Cattleya baudelaire (cf. the noble larva of the Cattleya Hawkmoth in one of Ada's entomological notes) was first discovered in Brazil in 1853 by Benedict Roezl, a renowned plant collector. It was named after Charles Baudelaire, a famous French poet, due to its alluring allure and enigmatic beauty. The orchid quickly became a highly sought-after species, and today, it remains one of the most popular orchids in cultivation.
Butterfly orchid is a common name for several orchids. Ada aurantiaca is an epiphytic orchid (by no means a butterfly orchid) from the genus Ada:
The orchid's color brings to mind Ronald Oranger, old Van's secretary (and the editor of Ada) who marries Violet Knox (old Van's typist whom Ada calls Fialochka, 'little Violet') after Van's and Ada's death. Because love is blind, Van fails to see that Andrey Vinelander and Ada have at least two children and that Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox are Ada's grandchildren.
According to Mlle Larivière (Lucette’s governess), ardis means in Greek “the point of an arrow:”
He found the game [Flavita, the Russian Scrabble] rather fatiguing, and toward the end played hurriedly and carelessly, not deigning to check ‘rare’ or ‘obsolete’ but quite acceptable possibilities provided by a loyal dictionary. As to ambitious, incompetent and temperamental Lucette, she had to be, even at twelve, discreetly advised by Van who did so chiefly because it saved time and brought a little closer the blessed moment when she could be bundled off to the nursery, leaving Ada available for the third or fourth little flourish of the sweet summer day. Especially boring were the girls’ squabbles over the legitimacy of this or that word: proper names and place names were taboo, but there occurred borderline cases, causing no end of heartbreak, and it was pitiful to see Lucette cling to her last five letters (with none left in the box) forming the beautiful ARDIS which her governess had told her meant ‘the point of an arrow’ — but only in Greek, alas. (1.36)
On the other hand, Ardis pallipes (Serville, 1823) is a common sawfly (sawflies are wasp-like insects that are in the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps):
The Russian name of a sawfly, pilil'shchik comes from pilit' (to saw) and brings to mind Pilite, pilite ("Keep sawing"), Panikovski's words to Balaganov in Ilf and Petrov's novel Zolotoy telyonok ("The Golden Calf," 1931):
— Ничего не понимаю! — сказал Шура, допилив до конца и разнимая гирю на две яблочные половины. — Это не золото!
— Пилите, пилите, — пролепетал Паниковский. Но Балаганов, держа в каждой руке по чугунному полушарию, стал медленно подходить к нарушителю конвенции.
— Не подходите ко мне с этим железом! — завизжал Паниковский, отбегая в сторону. — Я вас презираю!
Но тут Шура размахнулся и, застонав от натуги, метнул в интригана обломок гири. Услышав над своей головой свист снаряда, интриган лег на землю. (Chapter XX "The Commodore is Dancing a Tango")
Panikovski (who professionally imitates blindness; one of the novel's chapter is entitled "Homer, Milton and Panikovski") believes that Koreyko's dumbbells are made of gold and makes Balaganov saw one of them in two equal parts by means of a handsaw. Ostap Bender dances tango solo to the tune Pod znoynym nebom Argentiny:
Первым начал самовар. Из него внезапно вывалился на поднос охваченный пламенем уголек. И самовар запел:
Под знойным небом Аргентины,
Где небо южное так сине…
Великий комбинатор танцевал танго. Его медальное лицо было повернуто в профиль. Он становился на одно колено, быстро поднимался, поворачивался и. легонько переступая ногами, снова скользил вперед. Невидимые фрачные фалды разлетались при неожиданных поворотах. (ibid.)
As Mascodagama (Van's stage name), Van dances tango on his hands to the same tune:
Neither was the sheer physical pleasure of maniambulation a negligible factor, and the peacock blotches with which the carpet stained the palms of his hands during his gloveless dance routine seemed to be the reflections of a richly colored nether world that he had been the first to discover. For the tango, which completed his number on his last tour, he was given a partner, a Crimean cabaret dancer in a very short scintillating frock cut very low on the back. She sang the tango tune in Russian:
Pod znóynïm nébom Argentínï,
Pod strástnïy góvor mandolinï
‘Neath sultry sky of Argentina,
To the hot hum of mandolina
Fragile, red-haired ‘Rita’ (he never learned her real name), a pretty Karaite from Chufut Kale, where, she nostalgically said, the Crimean cornel, kizil’, bloomed yellow among the arid rocks, bore an odd resemblance to Lucette as she was to look ten years later. During their dance, all Van saw of her were her silver slippers turning and marching nimbly in rhythm with the soles of his hands. He recouped himself at rehearsals, and one night asked her for an assignation. She indignantly refused, saying she adored her husband (the make-up fellow) and loathed England. (1.30)
Rita is a character (Nata's sister) in Ilf and Petrov's one-act vaudeville Sil'noe chuvstvo ("Strong Feeling," 1933). Nata's first husband, Lifshitz is a Karaite:
Рита. На месте Наты я никогда не вышла бы второй раз замуж. Лифшиц гораздо лучше Стасика!
Мама. Да, но Лифшиц почти еврей, Риточка, – караим!
Рита. Надо, мама, смотреть на вещи глубже. Караим – это почти турок, турок – почти перс, перс – почти грек, грек – почти одессит, а одессит – это москвич!
According to Rita, a Karaite is almost a Turk. In Kim Beauharnais' album Van sees a photograph of Karol, or Karapars, Krolik, a doctor of philosophy, born in Turkey:
Well,’ said Van, when the mind took over again, ‘let’s go back to our defaced childhood. I’m anxious’ — (picking up the album from the bedside rug) — ‘to get rid of this burden. Ah, a new character, the inscription says: Dr Krolik.’
‘Wait a sec. It may be the best Vanishing Van but it’s terribly messy all the same. Okay. Yes, that’s my poor nature teacher.’
Knickerbockered, panama-hatted, lusting for his babochka (Russian for ‘lepidopteron’). A passion, a sickness. What could Diana know about that chase?
‘How curious — in the state Kim mounted him here, he looks much less furry and fat than I imagined. In fact, darling, he’s a big, strong, handsome old March Hare! Explain!’
‘There’s nothing to explain. I asked Kim one day to help me carry some boxes there and back, and here’s the visual proof. Besides, that’s not my Krolik but his brother, Karol, or Karapars, Krolik. A doctor of philosophy, born in Turkey.’
‘I love the way your eyes narrow when you tell a lie. The remote mirage in Effrontery Minor.’
‘I’m not lying!’ — (with lovely dignity): ‘He is a doctor of philosophy.’
‘Van ist auch one,’ murmured Van, sounding the last word as ‘wann.’ (2.7)
Darkbloom (‘Notes to Ada’): vanishing etc.: allusion to ‘vanishing cream’.
auch: Germ., also.
Babochka is Russian for "butterfly," wann is German for “when.” The local entomologist, Dr Krolik is Ada's beloved teacher of natural history. His brother Karol, or Karapars (“black panther”), Krolik was Ada’s first lover. When Van and Ada make love after the dinner in ‘Ursus,’ Ada complains that Van hurt her ‘like a Tiger Turk:’
‘My dear,’ said Van, ‘do help me. She told me about her Valentian estanciero but now the name escapes me and I hate bothering her.’
‘Only she never told you,’ said loyal Lucette, ‘so nothing could escape. Nope. I can’t do that to your sweetheart and mine, because we know you could hit that keyhole with a pistol.’
‘Please, little vixen! I’ll reward you with a very special kiss.’
‘Oh, Van,’ she said over a deep sigh. ‘You promise you won’t tell her I told you?’
‘I promise. No, no, no,’ he went on, assuming a Russian accent, as she, with the abandon of mindless love, was about to press her abdomen to his. ‘Nikak-s net: no lips, no philtrum, no nosetip, no swimming eye. Little vixen’s axilla, just that — unless’ — (drawing back in mock uncertainty) — ‘you shave there?’
‘I stink worse when I do,’ confided simple Lucette and obediently bared one shoulder.
‘Arm up! Point at Paradise! Terra! Venus!’ commanded Van, and for a few synchronized heartbeats, fitted his working mouth to the hot, humid, perilous hollow.
She sat down with a bump on a chair, pressing one hand to her brow.
‘Turn off the footlights,’ said Van. ‘I want the name of that fellow.’
‘Vinelander,’ she answered.
He heard Ada Vinelander’s voice calling for her Glass bed slippers (which, as in Cordulenka’s princessdom too, he found hard to distinguish from dance footwear), and a minute later, without the least interruption in the established tension, Van found himself, in a drunken dream, making violent love to Rose — no, to Ada, but in the rosacean fashion, on a kind of lowboy. She complained he hurt her ‘like a Tiger Turk.’ He went to bed and was about to doze off for good when she left his side. Where was she going? Pet wanted to see the album. (2.8)
Darkbloom (‘Notes to Ada’): Nikak-s net: Russ., certainly not.
The main character in The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Golden Calf, Ostap Bender is syn turetskopoddannogo (son of a Turkish subject). Ada's "tiger Turk" also seems to hint at Ilya Ilf's story Tovarishch tigr ("Comrade Tiger," 1926). Its main character is a rash cameraman. Comrade Tiger makes one think of Comrade Napoleon, the pig in George's Orwell's Animal Farm (1947) that brings to mind Kim Beauharnais (the kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis whom Van blinds for spying on him and Ada and attempting to blackmail Ada). In The Golden Calf Ostap Bender blackmails Alexander Ivanovich Koreyko (a secret Soviet millionaire).
On the other hand, Ardis (the name of Daniel Veen's fabulous family estate) hints at paradise. One of the chapters in Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs is entitled Izgnanie iz raya ("Expulsion from Paradise"). Bender and Vorob'yaninov are expelled from Skryabin, the ship on which the Columbus Theater sails down the Volga.