----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 7:27 AM
Subject: Vivians
Just out of curiosity. Alexey Sklyarenko in his
remarkable paper refers to Vivian Darkbloom (author of the ADA Notes) as to
a male (in male gender in Russian: в примечаниях
Вивиана Даркблума к "Аде"). I always assumed that it was what Lolita
wanted Humbert to believe, but in reality Vivian was a woman. In
the Russian translation of LOLITA Mrs Vivian Damor-Blok is most certainly a
lady (see the suave John Ray's Foreword). Is the Vivian of ADA of
different sex than the Vivian of LOLITA?
Incidentally, I am looking forward to seeing
more of Alexey's evidence that ADA is a "Russian novel written in English".
Respectfully,
Sergey