Subject
Van's new lawyer
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Date
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His new lawyer, Mr Gromwell, whose really beautiful floral name suited somehow his innocent eyes and fair beard, was a nephew of the Great Grombchevski, who for the last thirty years or so had managed some of Demon's affairs with good care and acumen. (Ada, Part Two, 2)
While the floral name of Van's lawyer seems to hint at Oliver Cromwell,* Grombchevski blends Gromnitski with Karabchevsky (the author of memoirs "Что глаза мои видели",** in which VN's father is mentioned), the two jurists who were popular in the pre-Revolutionary Russia.
In his story "Случай из судебной практики" (An Incident At Law, 1883) Chekhov pokes fun at lawyers and their soulful speeches in court and mentions a famous Russian lawyer whose name in bad novels is derived from grom ("thunder"), molniya ("lightning") and other tempests:
Защищал же знаменитейший и популярнейший адвокат. Этого адвоката знает весь свет. Чудные речи его цитируются, фамилия его произносится с благоговением...
В плохих романах, оканчивающихся полным оправданием героя и аплодисментами публики, он играет немалую роль. В этих романах фамилию его производят от грома, молнии и других не менее внушительных стихий.
Because Ada is not a bad novel, the lawyer's name, though with grom in it, is not derived from "thunder." Its botanic origin (gromwell are the plants Lithospermum gen. and L. officinale***) makes one think of the stock phrase цветы красноречия ("flowers of eloquence").
Van's father Demon (whose ancestor raffolait d'une de ses juments) and Baron d'Onsky (Skonky,**** with whom Demon had a sword duel) are horses in human disguise. The name of the most famous Russian jurist (a friend of Nekrasov, Dostoevski, Tolstoy***** and Chekhov), Koni, means "horses."
*Cromwell was not a jurist, but Kerenski and Lenin began their careers as lawyers.
**What my Eyes Have Seen (Berlin, 1921)
***Russian name of gromwell, vorobeynik, reminds one of Vorob'yaninov, a diamond hunter in Ilf & Petrov's "The 12 Chairs."
****anagram of konsky ("of a horse")
*****Koni gave Tolstoy the theme of his last novel, The Resurrection.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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While the floral name of Van's lawyer seems to hint at Oliver Cromwell,* Grombchevski blends Gromnitski with Karabchevsky (the author of memoirs "Что глаза мои видели",** in which VN's father is mentioned), the two jurists who were popular in the pre-Revolutionary Russia.
In his story "Случай из судебной практики" (An Incident At Law, 1883) Chekhov pokes fun at lawyers and their soulful speeches in court and mentions a famous Russian lawyer whose name in bad novels is derived from grom ("thunder"), molniya ("lightning") and other tempests:
Защищал же знаменитейший и популярнейший адвокат. Этого адвоката знает весь свет. Чудные речи его цитируются, фамилия его произносится с благоговением...
В плохих романах, оканчивающихся полным оправданием героя и аплодисментами публики, он играет немалую роль. В этих романах фамилию его производят от грома, молнии и других не менее внушительных стихий.
Because Ada is not a bad novel, the lawyer's name, though with grom in it, is not derived from "thunder." Its botanic origin (gromwell are the plants Lithospermum gen. and L. officinale***) makes one think of the stock phrase цветы красноречия ("flowers of eloquence").
Van's father Demon (whose ancestor raffolait d'une de ses juments) and Baron d'Onsky (Skonky,**** with whom Demon had a sword duel) are horses in human disguise. The name of the most famous Russian jurist (a friend of Nekrasov, Dostoevski, Tolstoy***** and Chekhov), Koni, means "horses."
*Cromwell was not a jurist, but Kerenski and Lenin began their careers as lawyers.
**What my Eyes Have Seen (Berlin, 1921)
***Russian name of gromwell, vorobeynik, reminds one of Vorob'yaninov, a diamond hunter in Ilf & Petrov's "The 12 Chairs."
****anagram of konsky ("of a horse")
*****Koni gave Tolstoy the theme of his last novel, The Resurrection.
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/