Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0021723, Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:55:57 -0300

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Re: one-armed Baron in ADA
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lexey Sklyarenko: [At Marina's funeral] D'Onsky's son, a person with only one arm, threw his remaining one around Demon and both wept comme des fontaines. (Ada: 3.8)... Soon after his arrival in Kishinev ...Pushkin met Alexander Ypsilanti ... a Phanariot who served in the Russian army and lost his right arm in the Battle of Dresden (1813). Pushkin mentions безрукий князь (one-armed prince) in a poem written in Kishinev (c. Apr. 5, 1821) and addressed to Vasiliy Davydov ..."

JM: There's also a one-armed man in "Lolita," Bill, a friend of the Schillers, inserted during Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's last encounter. Through the image of deformity Nabokov makes a reference to surrealism and pointillism: "He nursed his glass and, nodding sagely, replied: "Well, he cut it on a jagger, I guess. Lost his right arm in Italy." Lovely mauve almond trees in bloom. A blown-off surrealistic arm hanging up there in the pointillistic mauve. A flowergirl tattoo on the hand. Dolly and band-aided Bill reappeared. It occurred to me that her ambiguous, brown and pale beauty excited the cripple."

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