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article on dreams in VN's plays & stories; Bretwit in Pale Fire
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My Russian article Igra snov v p'yesakh i rasskazakh Nabokova ("The Dream
Play in Nabokov's Comedies and Stories") is now available online:
http://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=20397
Re Bretwit (Chess Intelligence) in Pale Fire:
in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Four: XXVII: 9-14) Lenski and Olga over the
chessboard sometimes sit deep in thought "and Lenski with a pawn takes in
abstraction his own rook." Pushkin composed this stanza in January, 1825. In
the first half of January, 1825, Ivan Pushchin (Pushkin's Lyceum friend)
visited Pushkin in Mikhaylovskoe and brought him a manuscript copy of
Griboedov's play Gore ot uma ("Woe from Wit," 1824). About the same time
Griboedov wrote a letter to Katenin in which he calls Famusov's daughter
Sofia (a character in his play) ferz' (the chess queen). In PF Ferz Bretwit
is a cousin of the granduncle of Oswin Bretwit, the retired diplomat whom
Gradus visits in Paris in the hope to find out the ex-King's whereabouts:
But to return to the roofs of Paris. Courage was allied in Oswin Bretwit
with integrity kindness, dignity, and what can be euphemistically called
endearing naivete. When Gradus telephoned from the airport, and to whet his
appetite read to him Baron B.'s message (minus the Latin tag), Bretwit's
only thought was for the treat in store for him. Gradus had declined to say
over the telephone what exactly the "precious papers" were, but it so
happened that the ex-consul had been hoping lately to retrieve a valuable
stamp collection that his father had bequeathed years ago to a now defunct
cousin. The cousin had dwelt in the same house as Baron B., and with all
these complicated and entrancing matters uppermost in his mind, the
ex-consul, while awaiting his visitor, kept wondering not if the person from
Zembla was a dangerous fraud, but whether he would bring all the albums at
once or would do it gradually so as to see what he might get for his pains.
Bretwit hoped the business would be completed that very night since on the
following morning he was to be hospitalized and possibly operated upon (he
was, and died under the knife).
If two secret agents belonging to rival factions meet in a battle of wits,
and if one has none, the effect may be droll; it is dull if both are dolts.
I defy anybody to find in the annals of plot and counterplot anything more
inept and boring than the scene that occupied the rest of this conscientious
note. (Kinbote's note to Line 286)
In a letter of Sept. 9, 1830, to Pletnyov (to whom EO is dedicated) Pushkin
quotes his uncle's last words: kak skuchny statyi Katenina! (How boring
Katenin's article are!) According to Pushkin, his uncle died as a honest
soldier, le cri de guerre a la bouche. Oswin Bretwit's last words to Gradus
are:
"I have a pain in my groin that is driving me mad. I have not slept for
three nights. You journalists are an obstinate bunch but I am obstinate too.
You will never learn from me anything about my king. Good-bye." (ibid.)
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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L
Play in Nabokov's Comedies and Stories") is now available online:
http://club.berkovich-zametki.com/?p=20397
Re Bretwit (Chess Intelligence) in Pale Fire:
in Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Four: XXVII: 9-14) Lenski and Olga over the
chessboard sometimes sit deep in thought "and Lenski with a pawn takes in
abstraction his own rook." Pushkin composed this stanza in January, 1825. In
the first half of January, 1825, Ivan Pushchin (Pushkin's Lyceum friend)
visited Pushkin in Mikhaylovskoe and brought him a manuscript copy of
Griboedov's play Gore ot uma ("Woe from Wit," 1824). About the same time
Griboedov wrote a letter to Katenin in which he calls Famusov's daughter
Sofia (a character in his play) ferz' (the chess queen). In PF Ferz Bretwit
is a cousin of the granduncle of Oswin Bretwit, the retired diplomat whom
Gradus visits in Paris in the hope to find out the ex-King's whereabouts:
But to return to the roofs of Paris. Courage was allied in Oswin Bretwit
with integrity kindness, dignity, and what can be euphemistically called
endearing naivete. When Gradus telephoned from the airport, and to whet his
appetite read to him Baron B.'s message (minus the Latin tag), Bretwit's
only thought was for the treat in store for him. Gradus had declined to say
over the telephone what exactly the "precious papers" were, but it so
happened that the ex-consul had been hoping lately to retrieve a valuable
stamp collection that his father had bequeathed years ago to a now defunct
cousin. The cousin had dwelt in the same house as Baron B., and with all
these complicated and entrancing matters uppermost in his mind, the
ex-consul, while awaiting his visitor, kept wondering not if the person from
Zembla was a dangerous fraud, but whether he would bring all the albums at
once or would do it gradually so as to see what he might get for his pains.
Bretwit hoped the business would be completed that very night since on the
following morning he was to be hospitalized and possibly operated upon (he
was, and died under the knife).
If two secret agents belonging to rival factions meet in a battle of wits,
and if one has none, the effect may be droll; it is dull if both are dolts.
I defy anybody to find in the annals of plot and counterplot anything more
inept and boring than the scene that occupied the rest of this conscientious
note. (Kinbote's note to Line 286)
In a letter of Sept. 9, 1830, to Pletnyov (to whom EO is dedicated) Pushkin
quotes his uncle's last words: kak skuchny statyi Katenina! (How boring
Katenin's article are!) According to Pushkin, his uncle died as a honest
soldier, le cri de guerre a la bouche. Oswin Bretwit's last words to Gradus
are:
"I have a pain in my groin that is driving me mad. I have not slept for
three nights. You journalists are an obstinate bunch but I am obstinate too.
You will never learn from me anything about my king. Good-bye." (ibid.)
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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L