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Fw: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
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EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks SAvely Senderovich for this item.
----- Original Message -----
From: Savely Senderovich
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
Mary Bellino's guess about refractions of K.R. (the penname of Constantine Romanov), Grand Duke and a minor poet, playwright and translator, in Conmal of PF seems quite interesting. Of course, the problem with VN always is -- what's the contextual function of a real historical person's reflections or rather refractions; and this case is pregnant with possibilities. K.R. was a very mediocre poet and translator, and he was very popular exactly with the public that did not like the really great poets of the Silver Age.
Another possibility to interpret the name Conmal : Constantine Malyi, that is, Constantine the Small, as opposed to Constantine the Great, yet, with usual Nabokovian perfidy, opposed not to the Byzantine Emperor, but to Constantine Balmont (Bal -- Mal), one of the five great Russian poets of the age whose names begin with "B" (see The Gift).
Savely Senderovich
----- Original Message -----
From: Savely Senderovich
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
Mary Bellino's guess about refractions of K.R. (the penname of Constantine Romanov), Grand Duke and a minor poet, playwright and translator, in Conmal of PF seems quite interesting. Of course, the problem with VN always is -- what's the contextual function of a real historical person's reflections or rather refractions; and this case is pregnant with possibilities. K.R. was a very mediocre poet and translator, and he was very popular exactly with the public that did not like the really great poets of the Silver Age.
Another possibility to interpret the name Conmal : Constantine Malyi, that is, Constantine the Small, as opposed to Constantine the Great, yet, with usual Nabokovian perfidy, opposed not to the Byzantine Emperor, but to Constantine Balmont (Bal -- Mal), one of the five great Russian poets of the age whose names begin with "B" (see The Gift).
Savely Senderovich