Subject
Fwd: Re: Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O" &"L´Histoire d´O"?
From
Date
Body
EDTHANKS to Jansy for this informative reply.
---------------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 18:38:02 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O" & "L´Histoire d´O"?
To: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
In Nabokov Studies, n.8 we find Mary Bellino´s review of "Torpid Smoke: The
stories of Vladimir Nabokov".
On page 212 Bellino writes on Mlle O:
The centerpiece of the volume is J.E,.Rivers´discussion of the original
French version of "Mademoiselle O." Rivers, whose witty Olympian overviews
of Nabokov scholarship appear from time to time...sees the whole and all of
its parts simultaneously. Over the course of nearly fifty pages he traces
the story in its successive incarnations, " from French to English to
Russian to English", and shows convincingly that the mademoiselle of the
French version (...) is a far more sympathetic character than the
Mademoiselle we know from the Nines Stories or the various versions of
Conclusive Evidence/Speak Memory/Drugie berega (...) The meat of the article
is a long analysis of the French text (...)Then the camera is brought closer
for an examination of what Rivers calls "the o hologram" - the preponderance
of "o" sounds in the written and spoken French of the story. There recall
both Mademoiselle O herself and the round mouth one makes when pronouncing
these round sounds, leaving the reader "no choice but to act the part of
Mademoiselle..."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: "Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello" <jansy@aetern.us>
Cc: <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:39 PM
Subject: Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O" & "L´Histoire d´O"?
ED reply to Jansy: "L´Histoire d´O" was published in 1954 and VN's
"Mademoiselle
O" was written in 1936. Oddly, if my memory serves, Dominique Aury (the
author's
real name) was the mistress of VN's Paris friend Jean Paulhan. I don't know
whether Reage was an "Armande" or not. The Von Kleist connection has been
proposed--how convincingly I don't recall. VN chose the pseudonym
"Mademoiselle
O" based on its resonance with the governess' real name "Miauton."
------------------------------------------
Quoting Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>Dear List,
>
> Nabokov mentioned "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", " Les Amours de
> Milord Grosvit" and he was certainly familiar with AnaĂŻs Nin and
> Pauline Réage ( wasn´t she christened "Armande", like Hugh´s
> "Transparent Things" gliding green woman? ).
> Could there be any linking between his choice of "Mlle O" as a
> contrast with Olympia Press "L´Histoire d´O"?
> ( Or with Von Kleist´s entirely different "Die Marquise von O"?)
> Why "O", anyway?
> Jansy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: D. Barton Johnson
> > Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 2:27 PM
> Subject: Fw: : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O"
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dmitri Nabokov
> To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 9:15 PM
> Subject: TR : : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov ...
>
>
> Dear Don,
>
> MLLE O, BY THE WAY, WAS NOT, AS SERGEI KARPUKHIN SUGGESTS, VN'S
> REPLACEMENT READING IN PARIS -- IT WAS POUCHKINE -- LE VRAI OU LE
> VRAISEMBLABLE, WHICH LATER APPEARED IN NY IN MY ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
>
> DN
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : Sandy P. Klein [mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com]
> Envoyé : samedi, 12. mars 2005 05:29
> À : SPKlein52@HotMail.com
> Objet : : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov ...
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281604#
>
> Mademoiselle O
> Mademoiselle O, c'est un monde perdu. Celui, anéanti, de la Russie
> d'avant la révolution mais surtout celui, enfoui, de l'enfance.
> Mademoiselle O fit partie à la fin du XIXe siècle de «cet énorme
> afflux d'institutrices anonymes», qui, d'Angleterre, d'Allemagne ou
> de France vinrent enseigner leur langue natale aux enfants des
> familles bourgeoises ...
> Friday 2005-03-11, Liberation - France (French)
>
>
>
> Poches
>
> : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov
> Mademoiselle O
>
>
> Par Hélène PERRAUDEAU
> vendredi 11 mars 2005
>
>
>
> Mademoiselle O
> 10/18 Traduit de l'américain par Yvonne et Maurice Couturier, 240
> pp., 7,30 EUR.
>
>
>
> Mademoiselle O, c'est un monde perdu. Celui, anéanti, de la Russie
> d'avant la révolution mais surtout celui, enfoui, de l'enfance.
> Mademoiselle O fit partie à la fin du XIXe siècle de «cet énorme
> afflux d'institutrices anonymes», qui, d'Angleterre, d'Allemagne ou
> de France vinrent enseigner leur langue natale aux enfants des
> familles bourgeoises russes. En faisant revivre la silhouette cocasse
> et difforme d'une Française exilée, Nabokov force les portes du passé
> pour y découvrir que «le monde que nous ouvre notre mémoire est
> admirable par ce qui s'en dégage de parfaitement pur et sain» : les
> couleurs, les bruits, les odeurs. Mais aussi les mains de
> mademoiselle O, ces mains «qui voltigent constamment au niveau de
> notre enfance, descendant des nuages supérieurs où demeurent les
> visages». L'écrivain, en quête de vérité, tente de ressaisir le monde
> qu'enfant, il percevait. Avec une tendresse proche de celle de Proust
> pour ses personnages, Nabokov dresse le portrait inoubliable de celle
> qui fut bien plus qu'une simple institutrice : «Je m'imagine le
> paradis comme un livre interminable qu'elle lirait sans se lasser Ă
> la lumière d'une bougie éternelle.»
>
> http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281604
----- End forwarded message -----
---------------------------------------------------
----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 18:38:02 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Reply-To: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Subject: Re: Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O" & "L´Histoire d´O"?
To: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
In Nabokov Studies, n.8 we find Mary Bellino´s review of "Torpid Smoke: The
stories of Vladimir Nabokov".
On page 212 Bellino writes on Mlle O:
The centerpiece of the volume is J.E,.Rivers´discussion of the original
French version of "Mademoiselle O." Rivers, whose witty Olympian overviews
of Nabokov scholarship appear from time to time...sees the whole and all of
its parts simultaneously. Over the course of nearly fifty pages he traces
the story in its successive incarnations, " from French to English to
Russian to English", and shows convincingly that the mademoiselle of the
French version (...) is a far more sympathetic character than the
Mademoiselle we know from the Nines Stories or the various versions of
Conclusive Evidence/Speak Memory/Drugie berega (...) The meat of the article
is a long analysis of the French text (...)Then the camera is brought closer
for an examination of what Rivers calls "the o hologram" - the preponderance
of "o" sounds in the written and spoken French of the story. There recall
both Mademoiselle O herself and the round mouth one makes when pronouncing
these round sounds, leaving the reader "no choice but to act the part of
Mademoiselle..."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: "Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello" <jansy@aetern.us>
Cc: <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:39 PM
Subject: Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O" & "L´Histoire d´O"?
ED reply to Jansy: "L´Histoire d´O" was published in 1954 and VN's
"Mademoiselle
O" was written in 1936. Oddly, if my memory serves, Dominique Aury (the
author's
real name) was the mistress of VN's Paris friend Jean Paulhan. I don't know
whether Reage was an "Armande" or not. The Von Kleist connection has been
proposed--how convincingly I don't recall. VN chose the pseudonym
"Mademoiselle
O" based on its resonance with the governess' real name "Miauton."
------------------------------------------
Quoting Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>Dear List,
>
> Nabokov mentioned "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", " Les Amours de
> Milord Grosvit" and he was certainly familiar with AnaĂŻs Nin and
> Pauline Réage ( wasn´t she christened "Armande", like Hugh´s
> "Transparent Things" gliding green woman? ).
> Could there be any linking between his choice of "Mlle O" as a
> contrast with Olympia Press "L´Histoire d´O"?
> ( Or with Von Kleist´s entirely different "Die Marquise von O"?)
> Why "O", anyway?
> Jansy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: D. Barton Johnson
> > Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 2:27 PM
> Subject: Fw: : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov ... Mlle "O"
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dmitri Nabokov
> To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 9:15 PM
> Subject: TR : : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov ...
>
>
> Dear Don,
>
> MLLE O, BY THE WAY, WAS NOT, AS SERGEI KARPUKHIN SUGGESTS, VN'S
> REPLACEMENT READING IN PARIS -- IT WAS POUCHKINE -- LE VRAI OU LE
> VRAISEMBLABLE, WHICH LATER APPEARED IN NY IN MY ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
>
> DN
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : Sandy P. Klein [mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com]
> Envoyé : samedi, 12. mars 2005 05:29
> À : SPKlein52@HotMail.com
> Objet : : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov ...
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281604#
>
> Mademoiselle O
> Mademoiselle O, c'est un monde perdu. Celui, anéanti, de la Russie
> d'avant la révolution mais surtout celui, enfoui, de l'enfance.
> Mademoiselle O fit partie à la fin du XIXe siècle de «cet énorme
> afflux d'institutrices anonymes», qui, d'Angleterre, d'Allemagne ou
> de France vinrent enseigner leur langue natale aux enfants des
> familles bourgeoises ...
> Friday 2005-03-11, Liberation - France (French)
>
>
>
> Poches
>
> : Roman. Vladimir Nabokov
> Mademoiselle O
>
>
> Par Hélène PERRAUDEAU
> vendredi 11 mars 2005
>
>
>
> Mademoiselle O
> 10/18 Traduit de l'américain par Yvonne et Maurice Couturier, 240
> pp., 7,30 EUR.
>
>
>
> Mademoiselle O, c'est un monde perdu. Celui, anéanti, de la Russie
> d'avant la révolution mais surtout celui, enfoui, de l'enfance.
> Mademoiselle O fit partie à la fin du XIXe siècle de «cet énorme
> afflux d'institutrices anonymes», qui, d'Angleterre, d'Allemagne ou
> de France vinrent enseigner leur langue natale aux enfants des
> familles bourgeoises russes. En faisant revivre la silhouette cocasse
> et difforme d'une Française exilée, Nabokov force les portes du passé
> pour y découvrir que «le monde que nous ouvre notre mémoire est
> admirable par ce qui s'en dégage de parfaitement pur et sain» : les
> couleurs, les bruits, les odeurs. Mais aussi les mains de
> mademoiselle O, ces mains «qui voltigent constamment au niveau de
> notre enfance, descendant des nuages supérieurs où demeurent les
> visages». L'écrivain, en quête de vérité, tente de ressaisir le monde
> qu'enfant, il percevait. Avec une tendresse proche de celle de Proust
> pour ses personnages, Nabokov dresse le portrait inoubliable de celle
> qui fut bien plus qu'une simple institutrice : «Je m'imagine le
> paradis comme un livre interminable qu'elle lirait sans se lasser Ă
> la lumière d'une bougie éternelle.»
>
> http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=281604
----- End forwarded message -----