Dear Andrew,
At the risk of flogging a dying horse, let me say that you continue to confuse VN with AB. VN was a mature adult of about fifty years when he wrote his lecture on J & H and his opinion at that time was that the story was of the "same order of art as Madame Bovary and Dead Souls." This can hardly be the result of "boyhood reading."
A versipel is not "a beast" at all. Neither is it a word invented by VN as someone else suggested. You will find it in "his" dictionary (Webster's 3rd). It is a generic term for beings that change their nature, from human to animal only for example, as a werewolf. It is a creature that has a double nature. It is not necessarily evil or even necessarily demonic. It is a synonym of "changeling" - - the same word in Latin dress.
Carolyn