[Several replies have come in; I collect them here for convenience.
From R.S. Gwynn, Jerry Katsell,Carolyn Kunin, Andrew Brown, and Brian Boyd. ~SB]


Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERY:Pnin's religion and Humbert's mailing address
From:
Rsgwynn1@cs.com
Date:
Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:46:38 EST
To:
NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu

In a message dated 1/16/2008 9:39:29 PM Central Standard Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:

Question #2. After two years Lolita writes to Humbert who now dwells
with Rita in an NYC apartment. How could she have possibly known the
address? Unless there is a a plausible explanation that escapes me,
this would be perhaps the only, albeit major flaw in the plot.


Wow, that's a good point!  However, H.H. was a published author by the time (well, we assume he was, given the book he was working on) and she could have laboriously tracked him down; given her straits and needs, she would have tried hard in one way or another.  Even in the days before Yahoo People Search, one could simply call information and ask.


Subject:
RE: [NABOKV-L] QUERY:Pnin's religion and Humbert's mailing address
From:
"Jerry Katsell" <jerry3@adelphia.net>
Date:
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:28:00 -0800
To:
"'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

           

            Dear Peter,

 

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, “Greek Catholic” has two accepted meanings: 1. a member of an Orthodox Eastern Church, and 2. a Uniate.

Clearly Nabokov intends the first meaning, specifically the Russian Orthodox Eastern Church. Poor Professor Timofey Pnin, yet another innocent misunderstanding lands in his lap.

 

Jerry Katsell

 



Subject:
Pnin's religion and Humbert's mailing address
From:
Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Date:
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:13:37 -0800
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>

Dear Peter Ratiu (?),

Perhaps Pnin takes his religion more seriously than his creator? or perhaps that wonderful image of the cross against Timofey's  bronzed chest or its earlier visitation by a monopod was it? was the impetus to put the cross there.

I had thought that Lolita woud write to Humbert at her mother's house of which he had taken possession. The post office at that time was a marvel of ingenuity and even today sometimes amazes with the occasional miracle.

with many thanks to Sam Schuman for the lovely joke from
Carolyn Kunin

Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERY:Pnin's religion and Humbert's mailing address
From:
Andrew Brown <as-brown@comcast.net>
Date:
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:31:40 -0500
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>

Despite the vast pre-revolution Russian population, the numbers were not in any way matched with the thriving ecumenism of a country like the United States, with religions running from an immense number of Catholic national denominations- - Irish Catholic, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Italian Catholic... to Protestant denominations running from “high” Episcopalianism to rural white Baptist, Black Baptist, Scottish Presbyterian, Methodism, Lutheranism ... and these are merely the Christian religions active in the U.S. at that time.  Add in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism ...

In the Russia in which Pnin, Liza, and Chateau grew up religious choice was not nearly so numerous and usually ran along class lines. It always seemed to me that Liza, Pnin, and Chateau belonged to the same class — a non-aristocratic intelligentsia which doesn’t quiet have an exact duplicate in our country. Although I don’t know the reason (a sort of non-aristocratic or non-nobility egalitarianism?) it doesn’t surprise me for them to all be Greek Catholic.

I believe Lolita’s letter reached Humbert after having been forwarded by the post office through a few previous addresses, had it not?

AndrewStuartBrown



Subject:
RE: ADA Online and Pnin's religion
From:
<b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
Date:
Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:27:51 +1300
To:
<NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

Dear all,

The annotations to ADA 1.25 have been added to ADAonline, at http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/.

Greek Catholic is just another name (Nabokov thought it more correct) for the church of which the Russian Orthodox church forms part.

Humbert presumably had left a redirection notice with the postal service that ensured Farlow's letter as well as Lo's reached him.

Brian Boyd

Search the Nabokv-L archive with Google

Contact the Editors

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

Visit Zembla

View Nabokv-L Policies