Subject
long before Moses
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Date
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Demon to Van: 'At the races, the other day, I was talking to a woman I preyed upon years ago, oh long before Moses de Vere cuckolded her husband in my absence and shot him dead in my presence - an epigram you've heard before, no doubt from these very lips - ' (Ada, 1.38)
'It's not a very old religion, anyway, as religions go, is it?' said Marina (turning to Van and vaguely planning to steer the chat to India where she had been a dancing girl long before Moses or anybody was born in the lotus swamp). (1.14)
Praskovia de Prey and Shakespeare are also mentioned in this chapter:
Marina was about to jingle a bronze bell for the footman to bring some more toast, but Greg said he was on his way to a party at the Countess de Prey's:
'Rather soon (skorovato) she consoled herself,' remarked Marina, alluding to the death of the Count killed in a pistol duel on Boston Common a couple of years ago.
'She's a very jolly and handsome woman,' said Greg.
'And ten years older than me,' said Marina...
...'Et pourtant,' said the sound-sensitive governess, wincing, 'I read to her twice Segur's adaptation in fable form of Shakespeare's play about the wicked usurer.'
'She also knows my revised monologue of his mad king,' said Ada:
Ce beau jardin fleurit en mai,
Mais en hiver
Jamais, jamais, jamais, jamais, jamais
N'est vert, n'est vert, n'est vert, n'est vert, n'est vert.
At a cocktail party given by the excellent widow of an obscure Major de Prey ("obscurely related to our late neighbor, a fine shot but the light was bad on the Common, and a meddlesome garbage collector hollered at the wrong moment") Demon Veen courts a young actress whose name hints at the youngest daughter of Shakespeare's mad king: 'She's a budding Duse,' replied Demon austerely, 'and the party is strictly a "prof push." You'll stick to Cordula de Prey, I, to Cordelia O'Leary.' (1.27)
Before repeating his epigram about Moses de Vere, Demon mentions Greg's (and his twin sister Grace's) father who suffers a mental illness: 'You have all sorts of rather odd neighbors. Poor Lord Erminin is practically insane.' (1.38)
Colonel Erminin failed to turn up at the picnic on Ada's twelfth burthday (1.13), saying in an apologetic note that his liver (pechen') was behaving like a pecheneg (savage). According to Van (3.2), Greg's 'father preferred to pass for a Chekhovian colonel.' Pecheneg is a story (1894) by Chekhov.
When Marina (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) was a little girl, 'Mesopotamian history was taught practically in the nursery.' (1.14) Below is the scripture lesson in Chekhov's story Three Years (1895), chapter IX:
Meanwhile Alexey Fyodorovitch was giving Sasha and Lida a scripture lesson below. For the last six weeks they had been living in Moscow, and were installed with their governess in the lower storey of the lodge. And three times a week a teacher from a school in the town, and a priest, came to give them lessons. Sasha was going through the New Testament and Lida was going through the Old. The time before Lida had been set the story up to Abraham to learn by heart.
“And so Adam and Eve had two sons,” said Laptev. “Very good. But what were they called? Try to remember them!”
Lida, still with the same severe face, gazed dumbly at the table. She moved her lips, but without speaking; and the elder girl, Sasha, looked into her face, frowning.
“You know it very well, only you mustn't be nervous,” said Laptev. “Come, what were Adam's sons called?”
“Abel and Canel,” Lida whispered.
“Cain and Abel,” Laptev corrected her.
A big tear rolled down Lida's cheek and dropped on the book. Sasha looked down and turned red, and she, too, was on the point of tears. Laptev felt a lump in his throat, and was so sorry for them he could not speak. He got up from the table and lighted a cigarette. At that moment Kochevoy came down the stairs with a paper in his hand. The little girls stood up, and without looking at him, made curtsies.
“For God's sake, Kostya, give them their lessons,” said Laptev, turning to him. “I'm afraid I shall cry, too, and I have to go to the warehouse before dinner.”
“All right.”
Alexey Fyodorovitch went away. Kostya, with a very serious face, sat down to the table and drew the Scripture history towards him.
“Well,” he said; “where have you got to?”
“She knows about the Flood,” said Sasha.
“The Flood? All right. Let's peg in at the Flood. Fire away about the Flood.” Kostya skimmed through a brief description of the Flood in the book, and said: “I must remark that there really never was a flood such as is described here. And there was no such person as Noah. Some thousands of years before the birth of Christ, there was an extraordinary inundation of the earth, and that's not only mentioned in the Jewish Bible, but in the books of other ancient peoples: the Greeks, the Chaldeans, the Hindoos. But whatever the inundation may have been, it couldn't have covered the whole earth. It may have flooded the plains, but the mountains must have remained. You can read this book, of course, but don't put too much faith in it.”
Антитерра + Ной = Антиной + Терра (Антитерра - Antiterra, Ной - Noah, Антиной - Antinous, Терра - Terra)
Note the mention of Abraham (the first of the great Biblical patriarchs, father of Isaac, and traditional founder of the ancient Hebrew nation). On Antiterra, Abraham Milton is a founder of Amerussia. On the other hand, Milton Abraham helped Aqua (Marina's mad twin sister) to organize a Phree Pharmacy in Belokonsk. (1.3)
The author of Paradise Lost (1667), John Milton was a civil servant for the Commonwealth of Englan under Oliver Cromwell. The name of Van's lawyer (whose employee Gwen helps Van to sell his book, Letters from Terra), Mr Gromwell, reminds one of Cromwell.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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'It's not a very old religion, anyway, as religions go, is it?' said Marina (turning to Van and vaguely planning to steer the chat to India where she had been a dancing girl long before Moses or anybody was born in the lotus swamp). (1.14)
Praskovia de Prey and Shakespeare are also mentioned in this chapter:
Marina was about to jingle a bronze bell for the footman to bring some more toast, but Greg said he was on his way to a party at the Countess de Prey's:
'Rather soon (skorovato) she consoled herself,' remarked Marina, alluding to the death of the Count killed in a pistol duel on Boston Common a couple of years ago.
'She's a very jolly and handsome woman,' said Greg.
'And ten years older than me,' said Marina...
...'Et pourtant,' said the sound-sensitive governess, wincing, 'I read to her twice Segur's adaptation in fable form of Shakespeare's play about the wicked usurer.'
'She also knows my revised monologue of his mad king,' said Ada:
Ce beau jardin fleurit en mai,
Mais en hiver
Jamais, jamais, jamais, jamais, jamais
N'est vert, n'est vert, n'est vert, n'est vert, n'est vert.
At a cocktail party given by the excellent widow of an obscure Major de Prey ("obscurely related to our late neighbor, a fine shot but the light was bad on the Common, and a meddlesome garbage collector hollered at the wrong moment") Demon Veen courts a young actress whose name hints at the youngest daughter of Shakespeare's mad king: 'She's a budding Duse,' replied Demon austerely, 'and the party is strictly a "prof push." You'll stick to Cordula de Prey, I, to Cordelia O'Leary.' (1.27)
Before repeating his epigram about Moses de Vere, Demon mentions Greg's (and his twin sister Grace's) father who suffers a mental illness: 'You have all sorts of rather odd neighbors. Poor Lord Erminin is practically insane.' (1.38)
Colonel Erminin failed to turn up at the picnic on Ada's twelfth burthday (1.13), saying in an apologetic note that his liver (pechen') was behaving like a pecheneg (savage). According to Van (3.2), Greg's 'father preferred to pass for a Chekhovian colonel.' Pecheneg is a story (1894) by Chekhov.
When Marina (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) was a little girl, 'Mesopotamian history was taught practically in the nursery.' (1.14) Below is the scripture lesson in Chekhov's story Three Years (1895), chapter IX:
Meanwhile Alexey Fyodorovitch was giving Sasha and Lida a scripture lesson below. For the last six weeks they had been living in Moscow, and were installed with their governess in the lower storey of the lodge. And three times a week a teacher from a school in the town, and a priest, came to give them lessons. Sasha was going through the New Testament and Lida was going through the Old. The time before Lida had been set the story up to Abraham to learn by heart.
“And so Adam and Eve had two sons,” said Laptev. “Very good. But what were they called? Try to remember them!”
Lida, still with the same severe face, gazed dumbly at the table. She moved her lips, but without speaking; and the elder girl, Sasha, looked into her face, frowning.
“You know it very well, only you mustn't be nervous,” said Laptev. “Come, what were Adam's sons called?”
“Abel and Canel,” Lida whispered.
“Cain and Abel,” Laptev corrected her.
A big tear rolled down Lida's cheek and dropped on the book. Sasha looked down and turned red, and she, too, was on the point of tears. Laptev felt a lump in his throat, and was so sorry for them he could not speak. He got up from the table and lighted a cigarette. At that moment Kochevoy came down the stairs with a paper in his hand. The little girls stood up, and without looking at him, made curtsies.
“For God's sake, Kostya, give them their lessons,” said Laptev, turning to him. “I'm afraid I shall cry, too, and I have to go to the warehouse before dinner.”
“All right.”
Alexey Fyodorovitch went away. Kostya, with a very serious face, sat down to the table and drew the Scripture history towards him.
“Well,” he said; “where have you got to?”
“She knows about the Flood,” said Sasha.
“The Flood? All right. Let's peg in at the Flood. Fire away about the Flood.” Kostya skimmed through a brief description of the Flood in the book, and said: “I must remark that there really never was a flood such as is described here. And there was no such person as Noah. Some thousands of years before the birth of Christ, there was an extraordinary inundation of the earth, and that's not only mentioned in the Jewish Bible, but in the books of other ancient peoples: the Greeks, the Chaldeans, the Hindoos. But whatever the inundation may have been, it couldn't have covered the whole earth. It may have flooded the plains, but the mountains must have remained. You can read this book, of course, but don't put too much faith in it.”
Антитерра + Ной = Антиной + Терра (Антитерра - Antiterra, Ной - Noah, Антиной - Antinous, Терра - Terra)
Note the mention of Abraham (the first of the great Biblical patriarchs, father of Isaac, and traditional founder of the ancient Hebrew nation). On Antiterra, Abraham Milton is a founder of Amerussia. On the other hand, Milton Abraham helped Aqua (Marina's mad twin sister) to organize a Phree Pharmacy in Belokonsk. (1.3)
The author of Paradise Lost (1667), John Milton was a civil servant for the Commonwealth of Englan under Oliver Cromwell. The name of Van's lawyer (whose employee Gwen helps Van to sell his book, Letters from Terra), Mr Gromwell, reminds one of Cromwell.
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/