Subject
A Russian Beauty (Krasavitsa)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 09 Aug 1998 03:23:17 -0700
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: A Russian Beauty
EDITOR's NOTE. Lisa Zunshine <zunshine@HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU>, who responds
to Peter Kartsev below, is the editor of a forthcoming collection of
articles tentatively entitled NABOKOV AND THE OTHER ARTS from Garland.
----------------------------
>>From "Peter A. Kartsev" <petr@glas.apc.org>
>Incidentally, I have a query of my own regarding the story. It has to do
>with Forstmann, the Russified German, who "knew how to to form,
>instantly and while no one noticed, an eternal friendship with a dog or
>with a child". This rings a distant bell: wasn't there a story by Stefan
>Zweig, whom VN no doubt despised, where somebody used just such a
>friendship with a little boy in order to get acquainted with his mother?
>Memory refuses to provide a title, and I have no access to anything by
>Zweig right now, but maybe somebody would be interested enough to look
>up a possible parallel.
I believe Peter Kartsev has in mind Zweig's story 'Fear,' but (may be
because I read 'A Russian Beauty' only in English translation) I have never
felt that Forstmann was such a repulsive person. Isn't his ability to form
an instant eternal friendship with a dog or with a child rather appealing?
Lisa Zunshine
Date: Sun, 09 Aug 1998 03:23:17 -0700
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: A Russian Beauty
EDITOR's NOTE. Lisa Zunshine <zunshine@HUMANITAS.UCSB.EDU>, who responds
to Peter Kartsev below, is the editor of a forthcoming collection of
articles tentatively entitled NABOKOV AND THE OTHER ARTS from Garland.
----------------------------
>>From "Peter A. Kartsev" <petr@glas.apc.org>
>Incidentally, I have a query of my own regarding the story. It has to do
>with Forstmann, the Russified German, who "knew how to to form,
>instantly and while no one noticed, an eternal friendship with a dog or
>with a child". This rings a distant bell: wasn't there a story by Stefan
>Zweig, whom VN no doubt despised, where somebody used just such a
>friendship with a little boy in order to get acquainted with his mother?
>Memory refuses to provide a title, and I have no access to anything by
>Zweig right now, but maybe somebody would be interested enough to look
>up a possible parallel.
I believe Peter Kartsev has in mind Zweig's story 'Fear,' but (may be
because I read 'A Russian Beauty' only in English translation) I have never
felt that Forstmann was such a repulsive person. Isn't his ability to form
an instant eternal friendship with a dog or with a child rather appealing?
Lisa Zunshine