Subject
Chess, Luzhin, and the Arthurian Grail (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Anat Ben-Amos <abenam@essex.ac.uk>
I wonder if the following may be of interest to Nabokov's chess themes,
especially to _The Defense_ (_Zashchita Luzhina_): I recently came across
this a scene in Chrestien de Troyes's _The Story of the Grail_ (Trans. R.
W. Linker, published by Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina
Press): "When she had armed him well with the armor, both she and my lord
Gauvain feared less, except that there was so much misfortune there that
he could not have a shield, so he made a shield of a chessboard and said:
`Friend, I do not wish you to go seek another shield for me' " (p. 121).
Later they fight the people of the town by throwing at them chessmen who
are of a size ten times bigger than usual chessmen, and they "defend
themselves well".
My immediate thoughts are of the relationship between Luzhin and his wife,
especially at the beginning when they are both "against the world", and of
course of Luzhin's battle against reccurances using chess abilities. Any
other thoughts?
Anat Ben-Amos
Department of Literature
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
E-mail: abenam@essex.ac.uk
I wonder if the following may be of interest to Nabokov's chess themes,
especially to _The Defense_ (_Zashchita Luzhina_): I recently came across
this a scene in Chrestien de Troyes's _The Story of the Grail_ (Trans. R.
W. Linker, published by Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina
Press): "When she had armed him well with the armor, both she and my lord
Gauvain feared less, except that there was so much misfortune there that
he could not have a shield, so he made a shield of a chessboard and said:
`Friend, I do not wish you to go seek another shield for me' " (p. 121).
Later they fight the people of the town by throwing at them chessmen who
are of a size ten times bigger than usual chessmen, and they "defend
themselves well".
My immediate thoughts are of the relationship between Luzhin and his wife,
especially at the beginning when they are both "against the world", and of
course of Luzhin's battle against reccurances using chess abilities. Any
other thoughts?
Anat Ben-Amos
Department of Literature
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
E-mail: abenam@essex.ac.uk