Subject
Gavronsky
From
Date
Body
Hm! Kveree-kveree, as poor Mlle L. used to say to Gavronsky. (Ada, 1.3)
Marina's former lover, the movie man G. A. Vronsky (whom Ada calls "Gavronsky"), meets Mlle Lariviere ("poor Mlle L."), Lucette's governess and novelist (the author of Les Enfants Maudits to be filmed by Vronsky), at the patio party in Ardis the Second (1.32). One of the guests at this party is Elsie Rack, Philip Rack's pregnant wife who poisons her poor husband (Ada's lover who gave Lucette piano lessons) before giving birth to "driplets."
Several memoirists mention El'za Gavronsky, whose amorous adventures were popular with Russian schoolboys (and considered "pornography" by teachers) in the pre-Revolutionary Russia. I quote from "Трава забвения" ("The Grass of Oblivion," 1964-67) by Valentin Kataev (Evgeny Petrov's elder brother):
Мы прятали эти сборники под партами вместе с крамольным «Сатириконом» и неприличными похождениями какой-то Эльзы Гавронской, в которых всё было абсолютно прилично, даже тошнотворно-скучно, но всё равно – гимназическое начальство считало, что это порнография.
In his book Kataev quotes a line from Bunin's poem "Compass" (1916):
Некий Nord моей душою правит
(A certain Nord directs my soul).
In Ada, Elsie de Nord is a critic (the First Clown in Elsinor, a distinguished London weekly), "vulgar literary demimondaine who thought that Lyovin went about Moscow in a nagol'nyi tulup" (1.10). Like Lyovin, Vronsky is a character in Tolstoy's Anna Karenin.
Two other poets whom Kataev often quotes in his memoirs are Mandelshtam and V. V. Mayakovsky (VN's "late namesake"). It was Mandelshtam's friend Boris Sinani who devised the word Khristosik ("little Christ"): “Христосики” были русачки с нежными лицами, носители “идеи личности в истории”, – и в самом деле многие из них походили на нестеровских Иисусов.
Cf. ...after G. A. Vronsky, the movie man, had left Marina for another long-lashed Khristosik as he called all pretty starlets (Ada, 1.3)
For some reason, Kataev calls Mayakovsky монпарнасец ("a Montparnassian"). Monparnasse (sic) is Mlle Lariviere's penname.
Degrasse (Lucette's smart, though decidedly 'paphish,' perfume: 2.5) echoes the title of Kataev's memoirs, while Gavronsky reminds one of Gavr (Russian spelling of the city known on Antiterra as Le Havre-de-Grace: 3.5). One is also reminded of Grasse, a town in S France ("the capital of perfume") where Bunin lived in emigration.
Gavr = vrag (enemy). There is Gavr in Gavroche (a character in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables who is mentioned in VN's Camera Obscura) and Gavriil/Gavrila (Gabriel of Pushkin's poem and Lapis-Trubetskoy's verses in Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs").
Kataev's penname (mentioned in his memoirs) was Starik Sobakin. There are sobaki (dogs) and Tobaki (the Tobaks) in Ada.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Marina's former lover, the movie man G. A. Vronsky (whom Ada calls "Gavronsky"), meets Mlle Lariviere ("poor Mlle L."), Lucette's governess and novelist (the author of Les Enfants Maudits to be filmed by Vronsky), at the patio party in Ardis the Second (1.32). One of the guests at this party is Elsie Rack, Philip Rack's pregnant wife who poisons her poor husband (Ada's lover who gave Lucette piano lessons) before giving birth to "driplets."
Several memoirists mention El'za Gavronsky, whose amorous adventures were popular with Russian schoolboys (and considered "pornography" by teachers) in the pre-Revolutionary Russia. I quote from "Трава забвения" ("The Grass of Oblivion," 1964-67) by Valentin Kataev (Evgeny Petrov's elder brother):
Мы прятали эти сборники под партами вместе с крамольным «Сатириконом» и неприличными похождениями какой-то Эльзы Гавронской, в которых всё было абсолютно прилично, даже тошнотворно-скучно, но всё равно – гимназическое начальство считало, что это порнография.
In his book Kataev quotes a line from Bunin's poem "Compass" (1916):
Некий Nord моей душою правит
(A certain Nord directs my soul).
In Ada, Elsie de Nord is a critic (the First Clown in Elsinor, a distinguished London weekly), "vulgar literary demimondaine who thought that Lyovin went about Moscow in a nagol'nyi tulup" (1.10). Like Lyovin, Vronsky is a character in Tolstoy's Anna Karenin.
Two other poets whom Kataev often quotes in his memoirs are Mandelshtam and V. V. Mayakovsky (VN's "late namesake"). It was Mandelshtam's friend Boris Sinani who devised the word Khristosik ("little Christ"): “Христосики” были русачки с нежными лицами, носители “идеи личности в истории”, – и в самом деле многие из них походили на нестеровских Иисусов.
Cf. ...after G. A. Vronsky, the movie man, had left Marina for another long-lashed Khristosik as he called all pretty starlets (Ada, 1.3)
For some reason, Kataev calls Mayakovsky монпарнасец ("a Montparnassian"). Monparnasse (sic) is Mlle Lariviere's penname.
Degrasse (Lucette's smart, though decidedly 'paphish,' perfume: 2.5) echoes the title of Kataev's memoirs, while Gavronsky reminds one of Gavr (Russian spelling of the city known on Antiterra as Le Havre-de-Grace: 3.5). One is also reminded of Grasse, a town in S France ("the capital of perfume") where Bunin lived in emigration.
Gavr = vrag (enemy). There is Gavr in Gavroche (a character in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables who is mentioned in VN's Camera Obscura) and Gavriil/Gavrila (Gabriel of Pushkin's poem and Lapis-Trubetskoy's verses in Ilf and Petrov's "The 12 Chairs").
Kataev's penname (mentioned in his memoirs) was Starik Sobakin. There are sobaki (dogs) and Tobaki (the Tobaks) in Ada.
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/