Surprises... there are always surprises in
Nabokov...This time, related to Shura and Arhus ( in Denmark). I still don't
grasp the authorial intention that might lurk in the paragraphs
about snobbish Cordula Tobak (or the Cabots), but there is a web
of sense holding up the most convoluted remarks.
A friend just sent me an email with images
from the Danish town "Arhus" (an anagram for "Shura").
Tickled by the coincidence, I decided to check for any reference, in "Ada,"
related to Denmark ( there are always some links thru Hamlet and
Elsinore). I found a paragraph about Cordula's ancestors. ‘...Cordula is now Mrs Ivan G. Tobak.
They are making follies in Florence. Here’s her last postcard. Portrait of
Vladimir Christian of Denmark, who, she claims, is the dead spit of her Ivan
Giovanovich. Have a look.’ // ‘Who cares for Sustermans,’ observed
Lucette, with something of her uterine sister’s knight move of specious
response, or a Latin footballer’s rovesciata."
From the book on "Vladimir Nabokov and the Art
of Painting," (Don, de Vries, L.Ashenden) I learned that Lucette's remark
about the Sustermans refers to an obscure Flemish painter named Joos Susterman,
but I'm still in the dark about why this is a knight's "move of
specious response....a rovesciata." can relate to the Susterman, or the
painter Joos to the (lowly) violinist called Shura Tobak. So,
taking my cue from Arhus and Cordula's "Christian
Vladimir" ancestor, I googled his two names, hoping to find out more
about "Shura."
Here is what I (indirectly... surprisingly)
found:
"Islam and the Decline of Greek Culture:
A Critical Look at John Freely's Book “Aladdin’s Lamp” ( From the desk
of Fjordman on Wed, 2009-04-01 07:29) "I have published a brief early review of
The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization by Jonathan
Lyons at the Gates of Vienna blog [...] Historian J. M. Roberts, who is not good
at all when it comes to Islamic Jihad but is otherwise worth reading, writes in
The New Penguin History of the World: “In 980 a series of dynastic struggles
ended with the victorious emergence of the prince who made Russia
Christian, Vladimir....[who] at first he showed the ostentatious
paganism which became a Viking warlord.... Russians treasure
the story that Islam was rejected by him because it forbade alcoholic
drink. The Bulgarians, they reported, smelt. The Germans had nothing to
offer. But Constantinople had won their hearts...Around about 986-8 Vladimir
accepted Orthodox Christianity for himself and his people. It was a turning
point in Russian history and culture...”