Subject
architect is to blame
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In Ada (2.3), David van Veen is an architect who built a hundred floramors to fulfil the fantasy of his grandson Eric, the author of the essay "Villa Venus: an Organized Dream".
As I pointed out before, arkhitektor vinovat (the architect is to blame) was a proverbial phrase in Tolstoy's family.
In an anonymous poem written in 1725, soon after the death of Peter I, the founder of St. Petersburg is called arkhitekton (obs., the architect):
Возрыдай днесь прегорко, Петрополе святый,
Аще и славно Петром Великим зачатый,
Ибо архитектон твой взят от тебя к богу,
В радости место печаль оставль тебе многу.
Peter I used to call the city he founded in the Neva's estuary Paradiz.
For Van, Eric Veen's Villa Venus is a paradise: As he was dressing, a messenger brought him a note from Lord C. (he was a cousin of one of Van's Riverlane schoolmates), in which generous Dick proposed to substitute for his debt an introduction to the Venus Villa Club to which his whole clan belonged. Such a bounty no boy of eighteen could hope to obtain. It was a ticket to paradise. (1.28) I have frequented bordels since my sixteenth year, but although some of the better ones, especially in France and Ireland, rated a triple red symbol in Nugg's guidebook, nothing about them pre-announced the luxury and mollitude of my first Villa Venus. It was the difference between a den and an Eden. (2.3)
Dick C.who offers Van an introduction to the Venus Villa Club seems to be a cousin of Cheshire, Van's schoolmate at Riverlane whose name hints at the Cheshire-Cat in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (known on Antiterra as "Palace in Wonderland", 1.8).
While Merezhkovski in his "Peter and Alexey" compares Peter I to an aquatic bird, Alexey Tolstoy in his "Peter I" compares the tsar to a cat. (One also remembers the well-known lubok painting "How the Mice Buried the Cat".)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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As I pointed out before, arkhitektor vinovat (the architect is to blame) was a proverbial phrase in Tolstoy's family.
In an anonymous poem written in 1725, soon after the death of Peter I, the founder of St. Petersburg is called arkhitekton (obs., the architect):
Возрыдай днесь прегорко, Петрополе святый,
Аще и славно Петром Великим зачатый,
Ибо архитектон твой взят от тебя к богу,
В радости место печаль оставль тебе многу.
Peter I used to call the city he founded in the Neva's estuary Paradiz.
For Van, Eric Veen's Villa Venus is a paradise: As he was dressing, a messenger brought him a note from Lord C. (he was a cousin of one of Van's Riverlane schoolmates), in which generous Dick proposed to substitute for his debt an introduction to the Venus Villa Club to which his whole clan belonged. Such a bounty no boy of eighteen could hope to obtain. It was a ticket to paradise. (1.28) I have frequented bordels since my sixteenth year, but although some of the better ones, especially in France and Ireland, rated a triple red symbol in Nugg's guidebook, nothing about them pre-announced the luxury and mollitude of my first Villa Venus. It was the difference between a den and an Eden. (2.3)
Dick C.who offers Van an introduction to the Venus Villa Club seems to be a cousin of Cheshire, Van's schoolmate at Riverlane whose name hints at the Cheshire-Cat in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (known on Antiterra as "Palace in Wonderland", 1.8).
While Merezhkovski in his "Peter and Alexey" compares Peter I to an aquatic bird, Alexey Tolstoy in his "Peter I" compares the tsar to a cat. (One also remembers the well-known lubok painting "How the Mice Buried the Cat".)
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/