----- Original Message -----
From: Alphonse Vinh
To: 'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 10:49 AM
Subject: RE: Mary Valevsky in "The Vane Sisters"

That should be Countess Marie Walewska (b. 1787) who was indeed Napoleon's mistress and bore him a son who became a prominent minister in the Second Empire.
 
Alphonse Vinh
NPR
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ED RESPONSE.Quite right and I thank my old acquaintance Alphonse Vinh. We may be getting warmer here but we still need to tie it to the events of the "Vane Sisters." One faint parallel is that Sibil is the mistress of "D' as Marie was mistress of Napoleon. We need (ideally) a suicide note from the pen of Marie.
-----Original Message-----
From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodell@cox.net]
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 1:47 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Mary Valevsky in "The Vane Sisters"

Marie Bouchet asked about the above name. A quick check turns up the possibly (ir-)relevant info that Mariia Valevskaia was a  Polish mistress of  Napoleon. See
 
http://www.peoples.ru/love/walewska-napoleon/