Subject
shar, arshin, Garshin
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Date
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"It is a common saying that a man needs only six feet of land [tri arshina zemli]. But surely a corpse wants that, not a man... A man needs, not six feet of land, not a farm, but the whole earth [ves' zemnoy shar], all Nature, where in full liberty he can display all the properties and qualities of the free spirit" (Chekhov, Gooseberries, 1898)
Arshin (accented on the last syllable) is Russian measure equivalent to 28 inches (71 cm) and a rule one arshin in length. In his famous lines Tyutchev says that "Russia is a thing of which the intellect cannot conceive. Hers is no common yardstick" (Umom Rossiyu ne ponyat', arshinom obshchim ne izmerit').
In Ada there is a character, Mr Arshin, who suffers from acrophobia (pathological fear of heights). As I pointed out earlier, his name and disease remind one of Garshin (1855-88), the writer who comitted a suicide by jumping down from a staircase landing. Chekhov dedicated to Garshin's memory his story The Fit (1888). Its hero suffers a nervous breakdown (nearly goes mad) after visiting brothels for the first time.
Among Garshin's acquaintances was a certain Anatoliy Leman, author of a book on the game of billiards. He was always in good spirits and acted depressingly on the poor author of The Red Flower and Nadezhda Nikolaevna (the story of a prostitute who becomes an artist's model). As Van notes in Ada, leman means "lover." Besides, Leman is the French name of the lake Geneva (btw., there is Neva in Geneva). Speaking of billiards, one remembers the line from Nabokov's poem L'inconnue de la Seine (1934): drug butylki, kostey i kiya ("friend of a bottle, the dice and a cue").
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Arshin (accented on the last syllable) is Russian measure equivalent to 28 inches (71 cm) and a rule one arshin in length. In his famous lines Tyutchev says that "Russia is a thing of which the intellect cannot conceive. Hers is no common yardstick" (Umom Rossiyu ne ponyat', arshinom obshchim ne izmerit').
In Ada there is a character, Mr Arshin, who suffers from acrophobia (pathological fear of heights). As I pointed out earlier, his name and disease remind one of Garshin (1855-88), the writer who comitted a suicide by jumping down from a staircase landing. Chekhov dedicated to Garshin's memory his story The Fit (1888). Its hero suffers a nervous breakdown (nearly goes mad) after visiting brothels for the first time.
Among Garshin's acquaintances was a certain Anatoliy Leman, author of a book on the game of billiards. He was always in good spirits and acted depressingly on the poor author of The Red Flower and Nadezhda Nikolaevna (the story of a prostitute who becomes an artist's model). As Van notes in Ada, leman means "lover." Besides, Leman is the French name of the lake Geneva (btw., there is Neva in Geneva). Speaking of billiards, one remembers the line from Nabokov's poem L'inconnue de la Seine (1934): drug butylki, kostey i kiya ("friend of a bottle, the dice and a cue").
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/