Speaking of Vasiliy Botkin (1812-69), the
critic and historian of literature S. A. Vengerov (who is mentioned
in Ada) compares him to a big bright reflector that makes
brighter the poor light of the critic Vissarion Belinsky (or, more likely, it is
the other way round: the poor light is Botkin and the bright
reflector, Belinsky):
"Приставьте к
скромному источнику света большой блестящий рефлектор, и оба вместе они будут
бросать яркий свет на далёкое расстояние. Умер Белинский, и Боткин исчезает из
истории русской литературы."
Isn't Kinbote's Commentary such a reflector
that makes Shade's Pale Fire so much brighter?
Alexey Sklyarenko