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Fw: here it is (Vintage edition) old Lesbian...
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Dear List,
In reference to Lolita (12?) attending Beardsley and Victor Wind ( then 12) going to Bart, I suggested a link bt "beards" and "seduction by a paedophile". It seems that I was wrong assuming that Victor had been exposed by his parents to such a danger. It must have been another child. Here is the text, as on Vintage edition, page 166.
A question lingers: Why did VN write Lesbian using a capital letter?
"well, good night," said Hagen. "Glad you could come. Good night."
He waited for them to reach their car, hesitated, and then marched back to the lighted porch, where, standing as on a stage, Pnin was shaking hands a second or third time with the Thayers and Betty.
( "I would never," said Joan, as she backed the car and worked on the wheel, "but never have allowed my child to go abroad with that old Lesbian." "Careful," said Laurence, "he may be drunk but he is not out of earshot.")
I shall not forgive you," said Betty to her merry host, "for not letting me do the dishes."
"I'll help him," said Hagen, ascending the porch steps and thumping upon them with his cane. "You, children, run along now."
There was a final round of handshakes, and the Thayers and Betty left.
(chapter 6 part 11)
Thinking back about details, what had struck me was the use of "Lesbian" in capital letters because I don't think that even in German it would be written like that.
I'd thought that the comment referred to Victor, but it suggests not any child but Joan's own, having been sent abroad. It hints that Hagen was the "old Lesbian".
The sentence ( the dialogues marking "she said/he said") about this subject comes inside parenthesis - as Joan herself was driving and speaking inside her car, whereas the others were outside.
Jansy
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In reference to Lolita (12?) attending Beardsley and Victor Wind ( then 12) going to Bart, I suggested a link bt "beards" and "seduction by a paedophile". It seems that I was wrong assuming that Victor had been exposed by his parents to such a danger. It must have been another child. Here is the text, as on Vintage edition, page 166.
A question lingers: Why did VN write Lesbian using a capital letter?
"well, good night," said Hagen. "Glad you could come. Good night."
He waited for them to reach their car, hesitated, and then marched back to the lighted porch, where, standing as on a stage, Pnin was shaking hands a second or third time with the Thayers and Betty.
( "I would never," said Joan, as she backed the car and worked on the wheel, "but never have allowed my child to go abroad with that old Lesbian." "Careful," said Laurence, "he may be drunk but he is not out of earshot.")
I shall not forgive you," said Betty to her merry host, "for not letting me do the dishes."
"I'll help him," said Hagen, ascending the porch steps and thumping upon them with his cane. "You, children, run along now."
There was a final round of handshakes, and the Thayers and Betty left.
(chapter 6 part 11)
Thinking back about details, what had struck me was the use of "Lesbian" in capital letters because I don't think that even in German it would be written like that.
I'd thought that the comment referred to Victor, but it suggests not any child but Joan's own, having been sent abroad. It hints that Hagen was the "old Lesbian".
The sentence ( the dialogues marking "she said/he said") about this subject comes inside parenthesis - as Joan herself was driving and speaking inside her car, whereas the others were outside.
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel@cox.net
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm