Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0021756, Sat, 25 Jun 2011 19:23:10 -0300

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Re: Oriental Skrotomoff
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PS: "In all his life, said stolid Greg to Van, he had never seen such an ugly engine, surgically circumcised, terrifically oversized and high-colored, with such a phenomenal cœur de bœuf; nor had either of the fascinated, fastidious boys ever witnessed the like of its sustained, strongly arched, practically everlasting stream." - it's not the first time that Nabokov mentions a "coeur de boeuf," is it?

JM: I found the reference to "Coeur de Boeuf" in Pale Fire. Harfar, like Ada's Percy de Prey, is "phenomenally endowed"...
Pale Fire note to lines 433-434: "A message from the Karlists containing these simple considerations checked her progress in Stockholm, and she flew back to her perch in a mood of frustration and fury (mainly, I think, because the message had been conveyed to her by a cousin of hers, good old Curdy Buff, whom she loathed)...." (p.205)
"He congratulated her on her attitude, solemnly swearing that he had given up, or at least would give up, the practices of his youth; but everywhere along the road powerful temptations stood at attention. He succumbed to them from time to time, then every other day, then several times daily — especially during the robust regime of Harfar Baron of Shalksbore, a phenomenally endowed young brute (whose family name, "knave’s farm," is the most probable derivation of "Shakespeare"). Curdy Buff — as Harfar was nicknamed by his admirers — had a huge escort of acrobats and bareback riders, and the whole affair rather got out of hand so that Disa, upon unexpectedly returning from a trip to Sweden, found the Palace transformed into a circus." (p.208)
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Former Nab-L posting (using the "cache" resource)
...In Pale Fire's Index we find: Shalksbore, Baron Harfar, known as Curdy Buff, b. 1921, man of fashion and Zemblan patriot ( 433).Queen Disa had a cousin nicknamed Curdy Buff ( ' his family name, "knave's farm," is the most probable derivation of "Shakespeare" ', as CK informs us).
Curdy Buff, "Coeur de Boeuf": how is he related to Shakespeare, knaves and appetizing tomatoes? What is his importance in Pale Fire?

Former posting (with no "cache" to open it):
NABOKV-L Archives -- May 2005 (#66) Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Why did Pale Fire's Disa laugh? ... Boyd mentioned "Curdy Buff" as a derivation from "coeur de boeuf" (ox heart). listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505&L=nabokv-l.....

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