Subject
ladies & gentlemen of jury, Bagration Island,
dogs in Lolita; Sobakevich in Pnin
dogs in Lolita; Sobakevich in Pnin
From
Date
Body
In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert (who writes his manuscript in
confinement) constantly addresses ladies and gentlemen of the jury. In a
letter of April 1, 1890, to Suvorin Chekhov responds to Suvorin's criticism
and mentions prisyazhnye zasedateli (the jurymen):
Вы браните меня за объективность, называя её равнодушием к добру и злу,
отсутствием идеалов и идей и проч. Вы хотите, чтобы я, изображая конокрадов,
говорил бы: кража лошадей есть зло. Но ведь это и без меня давно уже
известно. Пусть судят их присяжные заседатели, а моё дело показать только,
какие они есть. Я пишу: вы имеете дело с конокрадами, так знайте же, что это
не нищие, а сытые люди, что это люди культа и что конокрадство есть не
просто кража, а страсть. Конечно, было бы приятно сочетать художество с
проповедью, но для меня лично это чрезвычайно трудно и почти невозможно по
условиям техники. Ведь чтобы изобразить конокрадов в 700 строках, я всё
время должен говорить и думать в их тоне и чувствовать в их духе, иначе,
если я подбавлю субъективности, образы расплывутся и рассказ не будет так
компактен, как надлежит быть всем коротеньким рассказам. Когда я пишу, я
вполне рассчитываю на читателя, полагая, что недостающие в рассказе
субъективные элементы он подбавит сам. Будьте благополучны.
You abuse me for objectivity, calling it indifference to good and evil, lack
of ideals and ideas, and so on. You would have me, when I describe
horse-stealers, say: "Stealing horses is an evil." But that has been known
for ages without my saying so. Let the jury judge them, it's my job simply
to show what sort of people they are. I write: you are dealing with
horse-stealers, so let me tell you that they are not beggars but well-fed
people, that they are people of a special cult, and that horse-stealing is
not simply theft but a passion. Of course it would be pleasant to combine
art with a sermon, but for me personally it is extremely difficult and
almost impossible, owing to the conditions of technique. You see, to depict
horse-stealers in seven hundred lines I must all the time speak and think in
their tone and feel in their spirit, otherwise, if I introduce subjectivity,
the image becomes blurred and the story will not be as compact as all short
stories ought to be. When I write I reckon entirely upon the reader to add
for himself the subjective elements that are lacking in the story.
On April 24, 1890, Chekhov went on a long journey to Sakhalin (a place of
servitude and exile where the writer spent three months and three days and
came back to Moscow in December, 1890). In a letter of January 26, 1891, to
A. F. Koni (a jurist and public figure) Chekhov describes the children whom
he met in Sakhalin:
Положение сахалинских детей и подростков я постараюсь описать подробно. Оно
необычайно. Я видел голодных детей, видел тринадцатилетних содержанок,
пятнадцатилетних беременных. Проституцией начинают заниматься девочки с 12
лет, иногда до наступления менструаций.
I will try and describe minutely the position of the children and young
people in Sakhalin. It is exceptional. I saw starving children, I saw girls
of thirteen prostitutes, girls of fifteen with child. Girls begin to live by
prostitution from twelve years old, sometimes before menstruation has begun.
The surname Koni is a homonym of koni (horses), plural of kon' (horse). In
Gogol's Myortvye dushi ("Dead Souls," 1842) Selifan (Chichikov's coachman)
praises Zasedatel' (Assessor), the shaft-horse in Chichikov's troika:
<Хитри, хитри! вот я тебя перехитрю! - говорил Селифан, приподнявшись и
хлыснув кнутом ленивца. - Ты знай свое дело, панталонник ты немецкий! Гнедой
- почтенный конь, он сполняет свой долг, я ему с охотою дам лишнюю меру,
потому что он почтенный конь, и Заседатель тож хороший конь:!>
"Ah, you rascal, you rascal! I'll get the better of you!" ejaculated Selifan
as he sat up and gave the lazy one a cut with his whip. "You know your
business all right, you German pantaloon! The bay is a good fellow, and does
his duty, and I will give him a bit over his feed, for he is a horse to be
respected; and the Assessor too is a good horse:!" (chapter III)
One of the landowners visited by Chichikov, Mme Korobochka, sends an
eleven-year-old serf girl to guide Chichikov (whom she asks not to carry her
serf girl off):
- Вот видишь, отец мой, и бричка твоя ещё не готова, - сказала хозяйка,
когда они вышли на крыльцо.
- Будет, будет готова. Расскажите только мне, как добраться до большой
дороги.
- Как же бы это сделать? - сказала хозяйка. - Рассказать-то мудрено,
поворотов много; разве я тебе дам девчонку, чтобы проводила. Ведь у тебя,
чай, место есть на козлах, где бы присесть ей.
- Как не быть.
- Пожалуй, я тебе дам девчонку; она у меня знает дорогу, только ты смотри!
не завези её, у меня уж одну завезли купцы.
"There you see!" she remarked as they stepped out onto the verandah. "The
britchka is not yet ready."
"But it soon will be, it soon will be. Only direct me to the main road."
"How am I to do that?" said Madame. "'Twould puzzle a wise man to do so, for
in these parts there are so many turnings. However, I will send a girl to
guide you. You could find room for her on the box-seat, could you not?"
"Yes, of course."
"Then I will send her. She knows the way thoroughly. Only do not carry her
off for good. Already some merchants have deprived me of one of my girls."
(ibid.)
In VN's novel, Lolita elopes with Clare Quilty (a playwright who is clearly
guilty). When Humbert Humbert finally tracks down the kidnapper, Quilty
tries to seduce HH with his collection of erotica:
"Oh, another thing - you are going to like this. I have an absolutely unique
collection of erotica upstairs. Just to mention one item: the in folio
de-luxe Bagration Island by the explorer and psychoanalyst Melanie Weiss, a
remarkable lady, a remarkable work - drop that gun - with photographs of
eight hundred and something male organs she examined and measured in 1932 on
Bagration, in the Barda Sea, very illuminating graphs, plotted with love
under pleasant skies - drop that gun - and moreover I can arrange for you to
attend executions, not everybody knows that the chair is painted yellow -"
(2.35)
One of the landowners visited by Chichikov is Sobakevich. Among the pictures
that Chichikov sees at his place is a portrait of Prince Bagration (a hero
of the anti-Napoleon wars, the General who was felled in the battle of
Borodino):
Вошед в гостиную, Собакевич показал на кресла, сказавши опять: <Прошу!>
Садясь, Чичиков взглянул на стены и на висевшие на них картины. На картинах
всё были молодцы, всё греческие полководцы, гравированные во весь рост:
Маврокордато в красных панталонах и мундире, с очками на носу, Миаули,
Канари. Все эти герои были с такими толстыми ляжками и неслыханными усами,
что дрожь проходила по телу. Между крепкими греками, неизвестно каким
образом и для чего, поместился Багратион, тощий, худенький, с маленькими
знаменами и пушками внизу и в самых узеньких рамках. Потом опять следовала
героиня греческая Бобелина, которой одна нога казалась больше всего туловища
тех щёголей, которые наполняют нынешние гостиные.
At length they reached the drawing-room, where Sobakevich pointed to an
armchair, and invited his guest to be seated. Chichikov gazed with interest
at the walls and the pictures. In every such picture there were portrayed
either young men or Greek generals of the type of Movrogordato (clad in a
red uniform and breaches), Kanaris, and others; and all these heroes were
depicted with a solidity of thigh and a wealth of moustache which made the
beholder simply shudder with awe. Among them there were placed also,
according to some unknown system, and for some unknown reason, firstly,
Bagration - tall and thin, and with a cluster of small flags and cannon
beneath him, and the whole set in the narrowest of frames - and, secondly,
the Greek heroine, Bobelina, whose legs looked larger than do the whole
bodies of the drawing-room dandies of the present day. (chapter V)
In VN's novel Pnin (1957) Sobakevich is the Cockerells' cocker spaniel:
Although Komarov belonged to another political faction than Pnin, the
patriotic artist had seen in Pnin's dismissal an anti-Russian gesture and
had started to delete a sulky Napoleon that stood between young, plumpish
(now gaunt) Blorenge and young, moustached (now shaven) Hagen, in order to
paint in Pnin; and there was the scene between Pnin and President Poore at
lunch - an enraged, spluttering Pnin losing all control over what English he
had, pointing a shaking forefinger at the preliminary outlines of a ghostly
muzhik on the wall, and shouting that he would sue the college if his face
appeared above that blouse; and there was his audience, imperturbable Poore,
trapped in the dark of his total blindness, waiting for Pnin to peter out
and then asking at large: 'Is that foreign gentleman on our staff?' Oh, the
impersonation was deliciously funny, and although Gwen Cockerell must have
heard the programme many times before, she laughed so loud that their old
dog Sobakevich, a brown cocker with a tear-stained face, began to fidget and
sniff at me. (Chapter Seven, 6).
At The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where Humbert Humbert and
Lolita spend their first night together) Lolita caresses an old lady's
cocker spaniel:
A hunchbacked and hoary Negro in a uniform of sorts took our bags and
wheeled them slowly into the lobby. It was full of old ladies and clergy
men. Lolita sank down on her haunches to caress a pale-faced, blue-freckled,
black-eared cocker spaniel swooning on the floral carpet under her hand - as
who would not, my heart - while I cleared my throat through the throng to
the desk. (1.27)
At the Elphinstone hospital Quilty ("Mr. Gustave") calls for Lolita with a
cocker spaniel pup:
"Okey-dokey," big Frank sang out, slapped the jamb, and whistling, carried
my message away, and I went on drinking, and by morning the fever was gone,
and although I was as limp as a toad, I put on the purple dressing gown over
my maize yellow pajamas, and walked over to the office telephone. Everything
was fine. A bright voice informed me that yes, everything was fine, my
daughter had checked out the day before, around two, her uncle, Mr. Gustave,
had called for her with a cocker spaniel pup and a smile for everyone, and a
black Caddy Lack, and had paid Dolly's bill in cash, and told them to tell
me I should not worry, and keep warm, they were at Grandpa's ranch as
agreed. (2.22)
Quily's alias hints at Humbert Humbert's uncle Gustave Trapp who has the
same first name as Gustave Flaubert. Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary (1856)
was attacked by public prosecutors for obscenity.
Chekhov is the author of Dama s sobachkoy ("The Lady with the Dog," 1899).
In his autobiography Speak, Memory (pp. 39-40) VN says that the grandparents
of Box II (the Nabokovs' dachshund that followed his masters into exile) had
been Dr Anton Chekhov's Quina and Brom.
Chekhov's letter to Suvorin in which he says that it is the jurymen (and not
the writer) who must judge a criminal is dated April 1, 1890. April 1 is
Gogol's birthday. Gogol was born in 1809 and died in 1852. Lolita (who was
born on January 1, 1935) dies in childbirth a hundred years later: on
Christmas Day 1952. On Lolita's fourteenth birthday Humbert Humbert gives
her a bicycle:
January was humid and warm, and February fooled the forsythia: none of the
townspeople had ever seen such weather. Other presents came tumbling in. For
her birthday I bought her a bicycle, the doe-like and altogether charming
machine already mentioned and added to this a History of Modern American
Painting: her bicycle manner, I mean her approach to it, the hip movement in
mounting, the grace and so on, afforded me supreme pleasure; but my attempt
to refine her pictorial taste was a failure; she wanted to know if the guy
noon-napping on Doris Lee's hay was the father of the pseudo-voluptuous
hoyden in the foreground, and could not understand why I said Grant Wood or
Peter Hurd was good, and Reginald Marsh or Frederick Waugh awful. (1.12)
In VN's novel Dar ("The Gift," 1937) Fyodor compares a bicycle to
pristyaznaya (a trace-horse):
Велосипед, прислонённый к жёлто-освещённой стене, стоял слегка изогнуто, как
пристяжная, но ещё совершеннее его самого была его прозрачная тень на стене.
A bicycle, leaning against a yellow-lit wall, was slightly bent outwards,
like one of the side horses of a troika, but even more perfect in shape was
its transparent shadow on the wall. (Chapter Three)
At the end of "Dead Souls" Gogol compares Russia to a troika and repeats the
word koni (horses) three times:
Не так ли и ты, Русь, что бойкая необгонимая тройка несёшься? Дымом дымится
под тобою дорога, гремят мосты, всё отстаёт и остаётся позади. Остановился
поражённый божьим чудом созерцатель: не молния ли это, сброшенная с неба?
что значит это наводящее ужас движение? и что за неведомая сила заключена в
сих неведомых светом конях? Эх, кони, кони, что за кони! Вихри ли сидят в
ваших гривах? Чуткое ли ухо горит во всякой вашей жилке? Заслышали с вышины
знакомую песню, дружно и разом напрягли медные груди и, почти не тронув
копытами земли, превратились в одни вытянутые линии, летящие по воздуху, и
мчится вся вдохновенная богом!.. Русь, куда ж несёшься ты? дай ответ. Не
даёт ответа. Чудным звоном заливается колокольчик; гремит и становится
ветром разорванный в куски воздух; летит мимо всё, что ни есть на земли, и,
косясь, постораниваются и дают ей дорогу другие народы и государства.
And you, Russia of mine - are not you also speeding like a troika which
nought can overtake? Is not the road smoking beneath your wheels, and the
bridges thundering as you cross them, and everything being left in the rear,
and the spectators, struck with the portent, halting to wonder whether you
be not a lightning launched from heaven? What does that awe-inspiring
progress of yours foretell? What is the unknown force which lies within your
mysterious steeds? Surely the winds themselves must abide in their manes,
and every vein in their bodies be an ear stretched to catch the celestial
message which bids them, with iron-girded breasts, and hooves which barely
touch the earth as they gallop, fly forward on a mission of God? Whither,
then, are you speeding, O Russia of mine? Whither? Answer me! But no answer
comes - only the weird sound of your collar-bells. Rent into a thousand
shreds, the air roars past you, for you are overtaking the whole world, and
shall one day force all nations, all empires to stand aside, to give you
way! (Chapter XI)
Molniya, sbroshennaya s neba (a lightning launched from heaven) brings to
mind The Lady who Loved Lightning, a play written by Clare Quilty in
collaboration with Vivian Darkbloom (anagram of Vladimir Nabokov). According
to Humbert Humbert, his very photogenic mother died in a freak accident
(picnic, lightning) when he was three (1.2). In his story Duel' ("The Duel,"
1891) Chekhov describes a picnic in the mountains and a night thunderstorm
on the eve of Laevski's duel with von Koren. In a letter of July 6, 1898, to
Sumbatov-Yuzhin (a playwright and actor) Chekhov predicts to Sumbatov that a
lightning in Monte-Carlo will kill him:
Будь здоров и благополучен и не бойся нефрита, которого у тебя нет и не
будет. Ты умрёшь через 67 лет, и не от нефрита; тебя убьет молния в
Монте-Карло.
Chekhov describes the horse-stealers in his story Vory ("The
Horse-Stealers," 1890). Vory (thieves) is plural of vor (thief). In VN's
story Volshebnik ("The Enchanter," 1939) the narrator (who, like Humbert
Humbert, loves little girls) says that he is karmannyi vor (a pickpocket),
not a burglar, and mentions a round island:
Я карманный вор, а не взломщик. Хотя, может быть, на круглом острове, с
маленькой Пятницей (не просто безопасность, а права одичания, или это --
порочный круг с пальмой в центре?).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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confinement) constantly addresses ladies and gentlemen of the jury. In a
letter of April 1, 1890, to Suvorin Chekhov responds to Suvorin's criticism
and mentions prisyazhnye zasedateli (the jurymen):
Вы браните меня за объективность, называя её равнодушием к добру и злу,
отсутствием идеалов и идей и проч. Вы хотите, чтобы я, изображая конокрадов,
говорил бы: кража лошадей есть зло. Но ведь это и без меня давно уже
известно. Пусть судят их присяжные заседатели, а моё дело показать только,
какие они есть. Я пишу: вы имеете дело с конокрадами, так знайте же, что это
не нищие, а сытые люди, что это люди культа и что конокрадство есть не
просто кража, а страсть. Конечно, было бы приятно сочетать художество с
проповедью, но для меня лично это чрезвычайно трудно и почти невозможно по
условиям техники. Ведь чтобы изобразить конокрадов в 700 строках, я всё
время должен говорить и думать в их тоне и чувствовать в их духе, иначе,
если я подбавлю субъективности, образы расплывутся и рассказ не будет так
компактен, как надлежит быть всем коротеньким рассказам. Когда я пишу, я
вполне рассчитываю на читателя, полагая, что недостающие в рассказе
субъективные элементы он подбавит сам. Будьте благополучны.
You abuse me for objectivity, calling it indifference to good and evil, lack
of ideals and ideas, and so on. You would have me, when I describe
horse-stealers, say: "Stealing horses is an evil." But that has been known
for ages without my saying so. Let the jury judge them, it's my job simply
to show what sort of people they are. I write: you are dealing with
horse-stealers, so let me tell you that they are not beggars but well-fed
people, that they are people of a special cult, and that horse-stealing is
not simply theft but a passion. Of course it would be pleasant to combine
art with a sermon, but for me personally it is extremely difficult and
almost impossible, owing to the conditions of technique. You see, to depict
horse-stealers in seven hundred lines I must all the time speak and think in
their tone and feel in their spirit, otherwise, if I introduce subjectivity,
the image becomes blurred and the story will not be as compact as all short
stories ought to be. When I write I reckon entirely upon the reader to add
for himself the subjective elements that are lacking in the story.
On April 24, 1890, Chekhov went on a long journey to Sakhalin (a place of
servitude and exile where the writer spent three months and three days and
came back to Moscow in December, 1890). In a letter of January 26, 1891, to
A. F. Koni (a jurist and public figure) Chekhov describes the children whom
he met in Sakhalin:
Положение сахалинских детей и подростков я постараюсь описать подробно. Оно
необычайно. Я видел голодных детей, видел тринадцатилетних содержанок,
пятнадцатилетних беременных. Проституцией начинают заниматься девочки с 12
лет, иногда до наступления менструаций.
I will try and describe minutely the position of the children and young
people in Sakhalin. It is exceptional. I saw starving children, I saw girls
of thirteen prostitutes, girls of fifteen with child. Girls begin to live by
prostitution from twelve years old, sometimes before menstruation has begun.
The surname Koni is a homonym of koni (horses), plural of kon' (horse). In
Gogol's Myortvye dushi ("Dead Souls," 1842) Selifan (Chichikov's coachman)
praises Zasedatel' (Assessor), the shaft-horse in Chichikov's troika:
<Хитри, хитри! вот я тебя перехитрю! - говорил Селифан, приподнявшись и
хлыснув кнутом ленивца. - Ты знай свое дело, панталонник ты немецкий! Гнедой
- почтенный конь, он сполняет свой долг, я ему с охотою дам лишнюю меру,
потому что он почтенный конь, и Заседатель тож хороший конь:!>
"Ah, you rascal, you rascal! I'll get the better of you!" ejaculated Selifan
as he sat up and gave the lazy one a cut with his whip. "You know your
business all right, you German pantaloon! The bay is a good fellow, and does
his duty, and I will give him a bit over his feed, for he is a horse to be
respected; and the Assessor too is a good horse:!" (chapter III)
One of the landowners visited by Chichikov, Mme Korobochka, sends an
eleven-year-old serf girl to guide Chichikov (whom she asks not to carry her
serf girl off):
- Вот видишь, отец мой, и бричка твоя ещё не готова, - сказала хозяйка,
когда они вышли на крыльцо.
- Будет, будет готова. Расскажите только мне, как добраться до большой
дороги.
- Как же бы это сделать? - сказала хозяйка. - Рассказать-то мудрено,
поворотов много; разве я тебе дам девчонку, чтобы проводила. Ведь у тебя,
чай, место есть на козлах, где бы присесть ей.
- Как не быть.
- Пожалуй, я тебе дам девчонку; она у меня знает дорогу, только ты смотри!
не завези её, у меня уж одну завезли купцы.
"There you see!" she remarked as they stepped out onto the verandah. "The
britchka is not yet ready."
"But it soon will be, it soon will be. Only direct me to the main road."
"How am I to do that?" said Madame. "'Twould puzzle a wise man to do so, for
in these parts there are so many turnings. However, I will send a girl to
guide you. You could find room for her on the box-seat, could you not?"
"Yes, of course."
"Then I will send her. She knows the way thoroughly. Only do not carry her
off for good. Already some merchants have deprived me of one of my girls."
(ibid.)
In VN's novel, Lolita elopes with Clare Quilty (a playwright who is clearly
guilty). When Humbert Humbert finally tracks down the kidnapper, Quilty
tries to seduce HH with his collection of erotica:
"Oh, another thing - you are going to like this. I have an absolutely unique
collection of erotica upstairs. Just to mention one item: the in folio
de-luxe Bagration Island by the explorer and psychoanalyst Melanie Weiss, a
remarkable lady, a remarkable work - drop that gun - with photographs of
eight hundred and something male organs she examined and measured in 1932 on
Bagration, in the Barda Sea, very illuminating graphs, plotted with love
under pleasant skies - drop that gun - and moreover I can arrange for you to
attend executions, not everybody knows that the chair is painted yellow -"
(2.35)
One of the landowners visited by Chichikov is Sobakevich. Among the pictures
that Chichikov sees at his place is a portrait of Prince Bagration (a hero
of the anti-Napoleon wars, the General who was felled in the battle of
Borodino):
Вошед в гостиную, Собакевич показал на кресла, сказавши опять: <Прошу!>
Садясь, Чичиков взглянул на стены и на висевшие на них картины. На картинах
всё были молодцы, всё греческие полководцы, гравированные во весь рост:
Маврокордато в красных панталонах и мундире, с очками на носу, Миаули,
Канари. Все эти герои были с такими толстыми ляжками и неслыханными усами,
что дрожь проходила по телу. Между крепкими греками, неизвестно каким
образом и для чего, поместился Багратион, тощий, худенький, с маленькими
знаменами и пушками внизу и в самых узеньких рамках. Потом опять следовала
героиня греческая Бобелина, которой одна нога казалась больше всего туловища
тех щёголей, которые наполняют нынешние гостиные.
At length they reached the drawing-room, where Sobakevich pointed to an
armchair, and invited his guest to be seated. Chichikov gazed with interest
at the walls and the pictures. In every such picture there were portrayed
either young men or Greek generals of the type of Movrogordato (clad in a
red uniform and breaches), Kanaris, and others; and all these heroes were
depicted with a solidity of thigh and a wealth of moustache which made the
beholder simply shudder with awe. Among them there were placed also,
according to some unknown system, and for some unknown reason, firstly,
Bagration - tall and thin, and with a cluster of small flags and cannon
beneath him, and the whole set in the narrowest of frames - and, secondly,
the Greek heroine, Bobelina, whose legs looked larger than do the whole
bodies of the drawing-room dandies of the present day. (chapter V)
In VN's novel Pnin (1957) Sobakevich is the Cockerells' cocker spaniel:
Although Komarov belonged to another political faction than Pnin, the
patriotic artist had seen in Pnin's dismissal an anti-Russian gesture and
had started to delete a sulky Napoleon that stood between young, plumpish
(now gaunt) Blorenge and young, moustached (now shaven) Hagen, in order to
paint in Pnin; and there was the scene between Pnin and President Poore at
lunch - an enraged, spluttering Pnin losing all control over what English he
had, pointing a shaking forefinger at the preliminary outlines of a ghostly
muzhik on the wall, and shouting that he would sue the college if his face
appeared above that blouse; and there was his audience, imperturbable Poore,
trapped in the dark of his total blindness, waiting for Pnin to peter out
and then asking at large: 'Is that foreign gentleman on our staff?' Oh, the
impersonation was deliciously funny, and although Gwen Cockerell must have
heard the programme many times before, she laughed so loud that their old
dog Sobakevich, a brown cocker with a tear-stained face, began to fidget and
sniff at me. (Chapter Seven, 6).
At The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where Humbert Humbert and
Lolita spend their first night together) Lolita caresses an old lady's
cocker spaniel:
A hunchbacked and hoary Negro in a uniform of sorts took our bags and
wheeled them slowly into the lobby. It was full of old ladies and clergy
men. Lolita sank down on her haunches to caress a pale-faced, blue-freckled,
black-eared cocker spaniel swooning on the floral carpet under her hand - as
who would not, my heart - while I cleared my throat through the throng to
the desk. (1.27)
At the Elphinstone hospital Quilty ("Mr. Gustave") calls for Lolita with a
cocker spaniel pup:
"Okey-dokey," big Frank sang out, slapped the jamb, and whistling, carried
my message away, and I went on drinking, and by morning the fever was gone,
and although I was as limp as a toad, I put on the purple dressing gown over
my maize yellow pajamas, and walked over to the office telephone. Everything
was fine. A bright voice informed me that yes, everything was fine, my
daughter had checked out the day before, around two, her uncle, Mr. Gustave,
had called for her with a cocker spaniel pup and a smile for everyone, and a
black Caddy Lack, and had paid Dolly's bill in cash, and told them to tell
me I should not worry, and keep warm, they were at Grandpa's ranch as
agreed. (2.22)
Quily's alias hints at Humbert Humbert's uncle Gustave Trapp who has the
same first name as Gustave Flaubert. Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary (1856)
was attacked by public prosecutors for obscenity.
Chekhov is the author of Dama s sobachkoy ("The Lady with the Dog," 1899).
In his autobiography Speak, Memory (pp. 39-40) VN says that the grandparents
of Box II (the Nabokovs' dachshund that followed his masters into exile) had
been Dr Anton Chekhov's Quina and Brom.
Chekhov's letter to Suvorin in which he says that it is the jurymen (and not
the writer) who must judge a criminal is dated April 1, 1890. April 1 is
Gogol's birthday. Gogol was born in 1809 and died in 1852. Lolita (who was
born on January 1, 1935) dies in childbirth a hundred years later: on
Christmas Day 1952. On Lolita's fourteenth birthday Humbert Humbert gives
her a bicycle:
January was humid and warm, and February fooled the forsythia: none of the
townspeople had ever seen such weather. Other presents came tumbling in. For
her birthday I bought her a bicycle, the doe-like and altogether charming
machine already mentioned and added to this a History of Modern American
Painting: her bicycle manner, I mean her approach to it, the hip movement in
mounting, the grace and so on, afforded me supreme pleasure; but my attempt
to refine her pictorial taste was a failure; she wanted to know if the guy
noon-napping on Doris Lee's hay was the father of the pseudo-voluptuous
hoyden in the foreground, and could not understand why I said Grant Wood or
Peter Hurd was good, and Reginald Marsh or Frederick Waugh awful. (1.12)
In VN's novel Dar ("The Gift," 1937) Fyodor compares a bicycle to
pristyaznaya (a trace-horse):
Велосипед, прислонённый к жёлто-освещённой стене, стоял слегка изогнуто, как
пристяжная, но ещё совершеннее его самого была его прозрачная тень на стене.
A bicycle, leaning against a yellow-lit wall, was slightly bent outwards,
like one of the side horses of a troika, but even more perfect in shape was
its transparent shadow on the wall. (Chapter Three)
At the end of "Dead Souls" Gogol compares Russia to a troika and repeats the
word koni (horses) three times:
Не так ли и ты, Русь, что бойкая необгонимая тройка несёшься? Дымом дымится
под тобою дорога, гремят мосты, всё отстаёт и остаётся позади. Остановился
поражённый божьим чудом созерцатель: не молния ли это, сброшенная с неба?
что значит это наводящее ужас движение? и что за неведомая сила заключена в
сих неведомых светом конях? Эх, кони, кони, что за кони! Вихри ли сидят в
ваших гривах? Чуткое ли ухо горит во всякой вашей жилке? Заслышали с вышины
знакомую песню, дружно и разом напрягли медные груди и, почти не тронув
копытами земли, превратились в одни вытянутые линии, летящие по воздуху, и
мчится вся вдохновенная богом!.. Русь, куда ж несёшься ты? дай ответ. Не
даёт ответа. Чудным звоном заливается колокольчик; гремит и становится
ветром разорванный в куски воздух; летит мимо всё, что ни есть на земли, и,
косясь, постораниваются и дают ей дорогу другие народы и государства.
And you, Russia of mine - are not you also speeding like a troika which
nought can overtake? Is not the road smoking beneath your wheels, and the
bridges thundering as you cross them, and everything being left in the rear,
and the spectators, struck with the portent, halting to wonder whether you
be not a lightning launched from heaven? What does that awe-inspiring
progress of yours foretell? What is the unknown force which lies within your
mysterious steeds? Surely the winds themselves must abide in their manes,
and every vein in their bodies be an ear stretched to catch the celestial
message which bids them, with iron-girded breasts, and hooves which barely
touch the earth as they gallop, fly forward on a mission of God? Whither,
then, are you speeding, O Russia of mine? Whither? Answer me! But no answer
comes - only the weird sound of your collar-bells. Rent into a thousand
shreds, the air roars past you, for you are overtaking the whole world, and
shall one day force all nations, all empires to stand aside, to give you
way! (Chapter XI)
Molniya, sbroshennaya s neba (a lightning launched from heaven) brings to
mind The Lady who Loved Lightning, a play written by Clare Quilty in
collaboration with Vivian Darkbloom (anagram of Vladimir Nabokov). According
to Humbert Humbert, his very photogenic mother died in a freak accident
(picnic, lightning) when he was three (1.2). In his story Duel' ("The Duel,"
1891) Chekhov describes a picnic in the mountains and a night thunderstorm
on the eve of Laevski's duel with von Koren. In a letter of July 6, 1898, to
Sumbatov-Yuzhin (a playwright and actor) Chekhov predicts to Sumbatov that a
lightning in Monte-Carlo will kill him:
Будь здоров и благополучен и не бойся нефрита, которого у тебя нет и не
будет. Ты умрёшь через 67 лет, и не от нефрита; тебя убьет молния в
Монте-Карло.
Chekhov describes the horse-stealers in his story Vory ("The
Horse-Stealers," 1890). Vory (thieves) is plural of vor (thief). In VN's
story Volshebnik ("The Enchanter," 1939) the narrator (who, like Humbert
Humbert, loves little girls) says that he is karmannyi vor (a pickpocket),
not a burglar, and mentions a round island:
Я карманный вор, а не взломщик. Хотя, может быть, на круглом острове, с
маленькой Пятницей (не просто безопасность, а права одичания, или это --
порочный круг с пальмой в центре?).
Alexey Sklyarenko
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