Subject
Sumerechnikov
From
Date
Body
The late Sumerechnikov, American precursor of the Lumiere brothers, had taken Ada's maternal uncle in profile with upcheeked violin, a doomed youth, after his farewell concert. (1.6)
Vivian Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): Sumerechnikov: his name comes from Russ., sumerki, twilight...
From Vyazemski's "Допотопная, или Допожарная Москва" (Moscow before the Flood, or before the Fire, 1866):
В числе этих фотографий, отразившихся по большей части в профиль и при сумерках времён давно минувших, приведу мельком ещё несколько лиц, которых видал я на вечерах у отца моего. ("Among these photographs reflected mostly in profile and at twilight of the times long past I shall cursorily evoke one or two more faces that I saw at the parties given by my father.")
Herzen's first cousin Sergey Levitsky (1819-98) was a Russian pioneer photographer (below is Herzen's photograph by Levitsky). The author of Bygones and Meditations was born in 1812 in Moscow, a few months before it was occupied by Napoleon's army and set on fire by the patriotic citizens (incited by the governor Rostopchin*).
In the 1840s Herzen, his wife Natalie (who also was his first cousin) and Levitsky shared the appartments in the Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg. To commemorate this fact, the Bolshaya Morskaya Street was renamed Herzen Street by the Bolsheviks (see the photo of the Nabokov house in the Morskaya Street and the caption in VN's Speak, Memory).
*Cf. Who cried? Stopchin cried? Lariviere cried? Lariviere? Answer! Crying that the barn flambait? (1.19) As I pointed out before, the barn was set on fire by Kim Beauharnais, the kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis. As they watch the old snapshots in Kim's album (2.7), Van and Ada remember Sumerechnikov:
'And do you know who this bum in the frock is?
'Looks to me like a poor print cut out of the magazine. Who's he?'
'Sumerechnikov! He took sumerographs of Uncle Vanya years ago.'
In my old article in The Nabokovian ("Grattez le Tartar...") I argue that Kim Beauharnais (who seems to be not related to Napoleon's first wife) is the son of Arkadiy Dolgorukiy, the hero and narrator of Dostoevski's The Adolescent (1875). In Moscow before the Flood, or before the Fire Vyazemski quotes the pun of another Dolgorukiy, prince Sergey (nicknamed Le prince Calembour), on Perlot, the name of the governess of Vyazemski's half-sister (who was married to Karamzin): "ей нет опасения умереть от водяной (perd l'eau)" (she is in no fear to die of dropsy, perd l'eau). In Ada, Aqua is Marina's poor mad twin sister who believed that she learnt the language of her namesake, water.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Vivian Darkbloom ('Notes to Ada'): Sumerechnikov: his name comes from Russ., sumerki, twilight...
From Vyazemski's "Допотопная, или Допожарная Москва" (Moscow before the Flood, or before the Fire, 1866):
В числе этих фотографий, отразившихся по большей части в профиль и при сумерках времён давно минувших, приведу мельком ещё несколько лиц, которых видал я на вечерах у отца моего. ("Among these photographs reflected mostly in profile and at twilight of the times long past I shall cursorily evoke one or two more faces that I saw at the parties given by my father.")
Herzen's first cousin Sergey Levitsky (1819-98) was a Russian pioneer photographer (below is Herzen's photograph by Levitsky). The author of Bygones and Meditations was born in 1812 in Moscow, a few months before it was occupied by Napoleon's army and set on fire by the patriotic citizens (incited by the governor Rostopchin*).
In the 1840s Herzen, his wife Natalie (who also was his first cousin) and Levitsky shared the appartments in the Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg. To commemorate this fact, the Bolshaya Morskaya Street was renamed Herzen Street by the Bolsheviks (see the photo of the Nabokov house in the Morskaya Street and the caption in VN's Speak, Memory).
*Cf. Who cried? Stopchin cried? Lariviere cried? Lariviere? Answer! Crying that the barn flambait? (1.19) As I pointed out before, the barn was set on fire by Kim Beauharnais, the kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis. As they watch the old snapshots in Kim's album (2.7), Van and Ada remember Sumerechnikov:
'And do you know who this bum in the frock is?
'Looks to me like a poor print cut out of the magazine. Who's he?'
'Sumerechnikov! He took sumerographs of Uncle Vanya years ago.'
In my old article in The Nabokovian ("Grattez le Tartar...") I argue that Kim Beauharnais (who seems to be not related to Napoleon's first wife) is the son of Arkadiy Dolgorukiy, the hero and narrator of Dostoevski's The Adolescent (1875). In Moscow before the Flood, or before the Fire Vyazemski quotes the pun of another Dolgorukiy, prince Sergey (nicknamed Le prince Calembour), on Perlot, the name of the governess of Vyazemski's half-sister (who was married to Karamzin): "ей нет опасения умереть от водяной (perd l'eau)" (she is in no fear to die of dropsy, perd l'eau). In Ada, Aqua is Marina's poor mad twin sister who believed that she learnt the language of her namesake, water.
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/
