Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001421, Mon, 11 Nov 1996 09:00:25 -0800

Subject
Re: Query: Madelon II (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. My thanks to Bernard Kreise for his help on Madelon II. I
wonder if the "II" might just refer to WW II?
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Bernard Kreise <bkreise@pratique.fr>

>In SPEAK, MEMORY (Chptr 14, section 1; [p. 278 in the Putnam hardback]),
>VN complains that HE has never encountered any of those fabled, cultured
>Germans one reads about. He ends his list of "example" Germans with "or
>simply the so-called wholesome and kindly folks that during the last war
>homesick soldiers from the Middle West seem to have preferred so much to
>the cagey French farmer and to brisk Madelon II."
>
>QUESTION: Madelon II???
>
>D. Barton Johnson
>Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
>Phelps Hall
>University of California at Santa Barbara
>Santa Barbara, CA 93106
>Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
>Home Phone: (805) 682-4618
________

The Madelon is a song which was written during the Spring of 1914 by Louis
Bousquet to music by Camille Robert. It was very popular among French
soldiers during the first World War. What is Madelon "II" ? There is a
popular slang version of this song which I knew when I was in school !
Maybe this is the "Madelon II" !!

Bernard Kreise
Paris