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Re: TT Chronology - Zimmer translated (fwd)
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EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Duncan White for his translation of the Dieter
Zimmer YY Chronology.
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, July 23, 2004 8:39 PM +0100
From: Duncan White <duncanwhite24@hotmail.com>
To: chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
Subject: Re: TT Chronology - Zimmer translated
Dear Don and list,
I hope Dieter Zimmer will excuse my having taken the liberty of translating
(in rather slapdash fashion, I fear) his chronology for TT, included in his
previous post.
Best,
Duncan White
SSEES
In relation to each other, the stages of the novel (especially Hugh
Persons four journeys to Switzerland) and the ages of the major characters
all tally exactly. However, the fact that no year is mentioned throughout
the whole novel makes finding a precise date difficult. It is possible,
with a relative degree of certainty, though, due to an episode in Chapter
Six. In this chapter, Hugh Person ? on his first trip to Switzerland - is
taken by a prostitute to one of the better beds in a hideous old
roominghouse ? to the precise number, in fact, where ninety-one,
ninety-two, nearly ninety-three years ago a Russian novelist had sojourned
on his way to Italy." This Russian novelist is Ivan Turgenev. He travelled
to Italy twice. The first trip was taken in Jan 1840 while still a student
in Berlin, but this cannot be the trip in question, as the Faust novel Mr.
R mentions did not exist in any form at that time. So the trip mentioned
must be his second visit to Italy, which lasted from Oct 1857 to Apr 1858,
departing Paris and taking in Genoa, Rome and Naples. By that time he had
finished working on the narrative of Faust and was working on the novella
Asja. Both works reflect his great unfulfilled love for the singer Pauline
Viardot. Mr R., who is seemingly responsible for this Aperçu, then
calculates that Hugh Person arrived in the Geneva roominghouse nearly 93
years after Turgenev. So, nearly 93 years after Oct 1857, making it the
summer of 1950.
1932: Hugh Person is born. His father, Henry Emery Person is headmaster of
a private school in the US.
1949: His mother dies.
1950: As a student, he travels with his 60-year old father to Europe.
Person snr dies of a heart attack while trying on some trousers while
staying the Hotel Locquet in Trux.
1959: Mr. R, a German-American novelist, begins to court Julia Moore, his
step-daughter and great love. She is the daughter of his wife Marion.
Mother and daughter have a relationship with Christian Pines, the son of
the Director of Golden Windows, the film of Mr R.s book. Hugh also spends
a (largely unpleasant) night with Julia in New York.
1964: Now working for a NY publishing firm, goes on a business trip to
Witt, Switzerland (Hotel Ascot). He is there to meet Mr. R in the Versex
Palace hotel and to find out when the first novel of his Tralatitions
trilogy will be finished. In transit, he meets the 23-year old Armande
Chamar, who, co-incidentally, is a friend of Julia Moore. Hugh speaks to
her because she is reading one of Mr. Rs books, Golden Windows. He falls
in love with her. Visits her in Villa Nastia in Witt, a chalet belonging to
her mother, one Anastasia Petrovna Potapov, widow of the architect Charles
Chamar. Lives alone in the Ascot Hotel in Witt. Accompanies Armande and her
sporty friends on a several summer ski-trips. Proposes to her, marries her
and takes her back to New York via Stresa, where they stay in the Hotel
Borromeo.
1965: (February) Hugh and Armande return to Europe; she to visit her dying
mother in Belgium; he to conduct further business with Mr. R.
(March) In their NY apartment, Hugh strangles Armande in his sleep. Spends
six or seven years in prisons and psychiatric clinics.
1971? Mr. R. dies in Bologna from cancer of the liver. In his farewell
letter to his publishers, he enquires about Hugh.
1972: Hugh, now aged 40, returns to the Ascot Hotel in Witt, taking room
313. This was the room where Armande had visited him for the first time
since his proposal. Dies of smoke inhalation when the hotel catches fire,
after mixing up the window with the door.
_________________________________________________________________
Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Zimmer YY Chronology.
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, July 23, 2004 8:39 PM +0100
From: Duncan White <duncanwhite24@hotmail.com>
To: chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu
Subject: Re: TT Chronology - Zimmer translated
Dear Don and list,
I hope Dieter Zimmer will excuse my having taken the liberty of translating
(in rather slapdash fashion, I fear) his chronology for TT, included in his
previous post.
Best,
Duncan White
SSEES
In relation to each other, the stages of the novel (especially Hugh
Persons four journeys to Switzerland) and the ages of the major characters
all tally exactly. However, the fact that no year is mentioned throughout
the whole novel makes finding a precise date difficult. It is possible,
with a relative degree of certainty, though, due to an episode in Chapter
Six. In this chapter, Hugh Person ? on his first trip to Switzerland - is
taken by a prostitute to one of the better beds in a hideous old
roominghouse ? to the precise number, in fact, where ninety-one,
ninety-two, nearly ninety-three years ago a Russian novelist had sojourned
on his way to Italy." This Russian novelist is Ivan Turgenev. He travelled
to Italy twice. The first trip was taken in Jan 1840 while still a student
in Berlin, but this cannot be the trip in question, as the Faust novel Mr.
R mentions did not exist in any form at that time. So the trip mentioned
must be his second visit to Italy, which lasted from Oct 1857 to Apr 1858,
departing Paris and taking in Genoa, Rome and Naples. By that time he had
finished working on the narrative of Faust and was working on the novella
Asja. Both works reflect his great unfulfilled love for the singer Pauline
Viardot. Mr R., who is seemingly responsible for this Aperçu, then
calculates that Hugh Person arrived in the Geneva roominghouse nearly 93
years after Turgenev. So, nearly 93 years after Oct 1857, making it the
summer of 1950.
1932: Hugh Person is born. His father, Henry Emery Person is headmaster of
a private school in the US.
1949: His mother dies.
1950: As a student, he travels with his 60-year old father to Europe.
Person snr dies of a heart attack while trying on some trousers while
staying the Hotel Locquet in Trux.
1959: Mr. R, a German-American novelist, begins to court Julia Moore, his
step-daughter and great love. She is the daughter of his wife Marion.
Mother and daughter have a relationship with Christian Pines, the son of
the Director of Golden Windows, the film of Mr R.s book. Hugh also spends
a (largely unpleasant) night with Julia in New York.
1964: Now working for a NY publishing firm, goes on a business trip to
Witt, Switzerland (Hotel Ascot). He is there to meet Mr. R in the Versex
Palace hotel and to find out when the first novel of his Tralatitions
trilogy will be finished. In transit, he meets the 23-year old Armande
Chamar, who, co-incidentally, is a friend of Julia Moore. Hugh speaks to
her because she is reading one of Mr. Rs books, Golden Windows. He falls
in love with her. Visits her in Villa Nastia in Witt, a chalet belonging to
her mother, one Anastasia Petrovna Potapov, widow of the architect Charles
Chamar. Lives alone in the Ascot Hotel in Witt. Accompanies Armande and her
sporty friends on a several summer ski-trips. Proposes to her, marries her
and takes her back to New York via Stresa, where they stay in the Hotel
Borromeo.
1965: (February) Hugh and Armande return to Europe; she to visit her dying
mother in Belgium; he to conduct further business with Mr. R.
(March) In their NY apartment, Hugh strangles Armande in his sleep. Spends
six or seven years in prisons and psychiatric clinics.
1971? Mr. R. dies in Bologna from cancer of the liver. In his farewell
letter to his publishers, he enquires about Hugh.
1972: Hugh, now aged 40, returns to the Ascot Hotel in Witt, taking room
313. This was the room where Armande had visited him for the first time
since his proposal. Dies of smoke inhalation when the hotel catches fire,
after mixing up the window with the door.
_________________________________________________________________
Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L