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Re: ADA's Abraham Milton and Isaac Levitan and Adolf Marx
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Perhaps worth mentioning is also that Adolf Marx is the born name of Harpo Marx, one of the four famous comedian brothers that gave VN so much pleasure (he quoted stateroom scene from the 'Night in Opera' etc).
Victor Fet
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Alexey Sklyarenko
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 4:38 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] ADA's Abraham Milton and Isaac Levitan
In Paradise Lost, Book One, Milton mentions Leviathan, a sea monster of the Old Testament (Job, XL, 20): "that sea-beast / Leviathan, which God of all his works / Created hugest that sweam the ocean-stream" (200-202). MILTON + LEVIATHAN = HAMILTON + LEVITAN. Levitan is Chekhov's Jewish friend Isaak Levitan (1860-1900), the celebrated landscape painter. In a letter of May 10, 1885, Chekhov tells his younger brother that Levitan, who calls every fish "a crocodile," has made friends with Begichev (the patron of Moscow Imperial Theaters) who calls him "Leviathan." In another letter Chekhov mentions a peasant, who hired out to Levitan a bath cabin on his land and who calls his lodger "Tesak Il'ych" (instead of "Isaak Il'ych," Isaak being an unusual name for a peasant's ear; tesak is Russian for "broadsword," "cutlass" and "chopper," "hatchet"). TESAK = SEKTA (sect) = ASKET (ascetic). I don't know if they belonged to a sect, but both St. Anthony (c. 251-356), Anton Chekhov's namesake, the hero of Flaubert's novel and Bosh's painting, and Isaac Newton, Levitan's namesake, a scholar of genius, were famous ascetics.
Three details are perhaps worth mentioning:
Milton and Hamilton are also cities in Ontario, in SE Canada;
Leviathan is also a philosophical work (1651) by Thomas Hobbes dealing with the political organization of society;
Levitan had an elder brother Adolf, a genre-painter (1859-1933), who was the namesake of Chekhov's publisher, Adolf Marx (a curious name); having sold off the publishing rights to his works to Marx, Chekhov wrote in a letter that he was now a Marxist.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Victor Fet
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Alexey Sklyarenko
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 4:38 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] ADA's Abraham Milton and Isaac Levitan
In Paradise Lost, Book One, Milton mentions Leviathan, a sea monster of the Old Testament (Job, XL, 20): "that sea-beast / Leviathan, which God of all his works / Created hugest that sweam the ocean-stream" (200-202). MILTON + LEVIATHAN = HAMILTON + LEVITAN. Levitan is Chekhov's Jewish friend Isaak Levitan (1860-1900), the celebrated landscape painter. In a letter of May 10, 1885, Chekhov tells his younger brother that Levitan, who calls every fish "a crocodile," has made friends with Begichev (the patron of Moscow Imperial Theaters) who calls him "Leviathan." In another letter Chekhov mentions a peasant, who hired out to Levitan a bath cabin on his land and who calls his lodger "Tesak Il'ych" (instead of "Isaak Il'ych," Isaak being an unusual name for a peasant's ear; tesak is Russian for "broadsword," "cutlass" and "chopper," "hatchet"). TESAK = SEKTA (sect) = ASKET (ascetic). I don't know if they belonged to a sect, but both St. Anthony (c. 251-356), Anton Chekhov's namesake, the hero of Flaubert's novel and Bosh's painting, and Isaac Newton, Levitan's namesake, a scholar of genius, were famous ascetics.
Three details are perhaps worth mentioning:
Milton and Hamilton are also cities in Ontario, in SE Canada;
Leviathan is also a philosophical work (1651) by Thomas Hobbes dealing with the political organization of society;
Levitan had an elder brother Adolf, a genre-painter (1859-1933), who was the namesake of Chekhov's publisher, Adolf Marx (a curious name); having sold off the publishing rights to his works to Marx, Chekhov wrote in a letter that he was now a Marxist.
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en%0d%0a>
Contact the Editors<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"<http://www.nabokovonline.com>
Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies<http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Manage subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
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/