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Maykov and Tolstoy
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Maykov's best-known poem (his only chef d'oeuvre) is Tri smerti ("The Three Deaths", 1851), "a lyrical drama" set in Nero's Rome. Tolstoy has a story with a similar title (1859). Tolstoy's masterpiece is not Tri smerti, though, but Smert' Ivana Ilyicha ("The Death of Ivan Ilyich", 1886).
Like the name Dostoevski, death begins with a D (dobro, "good", in the old Russian alphabet). Speaking to Van, Ada euphemistically calls death "dee": "We'll manage, perhaps, to wear our masks always, till dee do us part, but we shall never be able to marry - while they're both alive" (1.38). "They" are Demon and Marina, Van's and Ada's parents. Van and Ada, brother and sister, can not marry even after "three elements, fire, water and air, destroyed, in that sequence, Marina, Lucette, and Demon" (3.1). They have to wait for the fourth death, that of Ada's husband, Andrey Vinelander. After he died on April 23, 1922, Van and Ada reunite and live together for the rest of their lives.
Chekov's play Tri sestry ("The Three Sisters") is known on Antiterra as "The Four Sisters". One wonders if, on Antiterra, the title of Maykov's poem and Tolstoy's story is not "The Four Deaths"?
Thanks to Maurice Couturier and all who responded to my query about Boris Vian.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Like the name Dostoevski, death begins with a D (dobro, "good", in the old Russian alphabet). Speaking to Van, Ada euphemistically calls death "dee": "We'll manage, perhaps, to wear our masks always, till dee do us part, but we shall never be able to marry - while they're both alive" (1.38). "They" are Demon and Marina, Van's and Ada's parents. Van and Ada, brother and sister, can not marry even after "three elements, fire, water and air, destroyed, in that sequence, Marina, Lucette, and Demon" (3.1). They have to wait for the fourth death, that of Ada's husband, Andrey Vinelander. After he died on April 23, 1922, Van and Ada reunite and live together for the rest of their lives.
Chekov's play Tri sestry ("The Three Sisters") is known on Antiterra as "The Four Sisters". One wonders if, on Antiterra, the title of Maykov's poem and Tolstoy's story is not "The Four Deaths"?
Thanks to Maurice Couturier and all who responded to my query about Boris Vian.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/