Subject
Miscellaneous Nabokov Sightings
From
Date
Body
The London _Times Literary Supplement_ of 24 Aug 04, p. 22 reviews
CatherineScott-Clarke & Adrian Levy's new boonk_The Amber Room: The
Untold Storyofthe Greatest Hoax of the Twentieth Century. The Amber
Room was an entire roombuilt in Konigsberg by the king of Prussia as
a gift for Peter the Great. Itwas assembled in Petersberg. In WWII
the invading Germans seized the room andsent it back to Prussia where
it disappeared in the chaos of the Soviet captureof Konigsberg.
Endless rumors and intrigue with the Soviets claiming the
Germanburied it or shipped it west. The Germans assert looting by
the invadingSoviet troops was responsible etc.etc.Secret
intelligence services, governmentand/or private adventurers. One
treasure hunter as late as 1987 was stabbed andritually
disembowelled. One prominent figure in the circle
financingthe in treasure hunt was Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein, a
colorful cousin of VN.Shades of PALEFIRE!
------------------------------------------------------------
WilliamWeld, the ex-governor of Massachusetts, is a longtime Nabokov
fan who confessedhis admiration in an intereview some years ago in GQ
magazine. More recently hehas turned his hand to writing popular
political satire novels, including BIGUGLY.I note VN makes two
fleeting appearances: In one the apparently witlesswife of a powerful
"downhome" Senate peruses the bookshelves of thehero and remarks "Oh,
you can't have these together......neither wouldapprove. The quick
witted hero's anthropologist wife Emma replies"Omigosh, you're
right....The movers must have done it. A bit later theconversation
turns to botany, insects, and sex. One character says
"Thefemaleplants won't accept pollrn unless its from a male flower,
and it has tobe from the same kind of tree, no miscegenation, but a
different tree. " Emma replies: " Scient insect, no incest." Th
conversation continueson to the fanciful lock and key forms of
butterfly genitalia.