Dear Jansy,

How lovely to hear from you again. The title is not 'frost' or 'sleet' as I had guessed, but 'cluster' [but note the interesting confluence of r, s and t that I guessed at] (as in grapes) which is very appropriate for the small collection of delicate poems contained in what was actually a pamphlet. Thanks to Michael Juliar for this information. Alexey Sklyarenko also provided additional bibliographical information. I am also appending some links below that Matt Roth contributed. *

Who is Ada? Literally 'she who must be obeyed' or 'the lady from Hell.' Who is Ada? A poisoner? certainly. A femme fatale? Most definitely. Greedy? Insatiable? Yes, she is all those things. But she is also a great scientist, a consummate gameswoman (see the current film version of Anna Karenina to see how she and Van played a much more interesting game than Scrabble) and most important, she is much loved - firstly by her brother, who only fantasizes a sexual relationship with the one woman who was not in love with him - but by everyone who encounters her. The clue to her power is her name. A palindrome, a pun, a miror image and a mirror.

Who hates her? Her author. Why? I have no idea. 
Carolyn

ps She also goes by other names Mrs Percy de Prey, and is she not also perhaps Mrs Ronald Oranger? In other words, is she not immortal? Lilith herself perhaps? By the way, some may recall the phrase 'she who must be obeyed' from the wonderful old Mystery! series on tv - Rumpole of the Bailey, with its main theme in gavotte form for a bassoon. They don't make them like that any more. Anyway, 'she who must be obeyed,' is reference to a potboiler by the author of 'King Solomon's Mines' whose name escapes me at the moment. Very popular in his day, now, alas an obscurity.


*Hi Carolyn,
Nice to hear from you on the list.  I’m sorry to learr that you have been laid up, appropriately or not, but glad you are back and, I hope, feeling better.  Wonderful to hear of your acquisitions.  I found a rather incomplete link to some info on Grozd’ here: http://books.google.com/books?id=2-2RiEvaZGQC&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=grozd+sirin+berlin&source=bl&ots=PihWtYihZU&sig=f55TAAQ-Ap7f4ieDzed9tNS0QhM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=d1QJUejvAZGK9QTX7IDoBQ&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=grozd%20sirin%20berlin&f=false 
 
Boyd has a little on it in The Russian Years, but not much.
 
Also a good bit here: http://books.google.com/books?id=sVpkLlvNXuEC&pg=PA16&dq=%22the+cluster%22+sirin&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jFYJUa3nEZGI9QSlnYCgAw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22the%20cluster%22%20sirin&f=false
 
But perhaps you knew all this already or I mistranslated your French and sent this for no good reason anyway.  C’est etc.
 
All the best,
Matt
 
 
 
Matthew Roth
Associate Professor and Chair, English Department
Messiah College
On Jan 30, 2013, at 12:22 PM, Jansy wrote:

Jansy Mello: Welcome back to the List, Carolyn.[C.Kunin greets "Dorogoi Alexey & List" and adds a private joke to JM, often nicknamed "Etsy etsy etsy" by her, after Dmitri Nabokov once complained about her use of "etc etc" in an ancient N-L posting in which she vaguely praised his talents. C.K informs that VN's complete pen name is V.Sirin, following the entry in Grozd'(frost? a ne moroz)' that was signed by V Sirin, Berlin, 1923.[   ]. The sad Chekhovian news is that his great translator, Michael Heim died three months ago in Santa Monica.
How interesting, is the title of the book "Frost"? Are they poems?
 
A.Sklyarenko: ..."In a letter of February 2, 1900, to I. L. Leont'yev (Shcheglov) Chekhov apologizes for pevuchiy ton bogomolki(singsongy devotional tone): ÐŸÑ€Ð¾ÑÑ‚ите, что я заговорил певучим тоном богомолки."[   ] "The vivisectional alibi" provided by the dead boy (Aqua's and Marina's brother Ivan) seems to suggest that Marina is not as innocent after all.[   ] We have no evidence to incriminate Marina (who would know that some plants are poisonous) poor Aqua's madness and death, but she is certainly responsible for the miscarriage Aqua sufferred after skiing with her sister (who would woosh down fluffy slopes on a bobsleigh a fortnight after giving birth to Van: 1.38) and for making mad Aqua believe that Van was her, Aqua's, son (1.3).
 
 
Jansy Mello: Why did Chekhov apologize to I.L.Leont'yev in connection to his sentence about a "singsongy devotional tone." (in what context?)  Marina wasn't innocent of her brother's premature death (tuberculosis or poison? I remember a reference to a blob of blood in the hammock he used to lie in), or of having seduced him in their youth or because she was responsible for Aqua's miscarriage?
Nabokov has written harsh words about Van, in SO. I don't remember his criticism of Ada, who certainly deserved a similar treatment. Did Ada see herself as a Russian lady and did she despise the peasants, as suggested by her dismissal of the strong humid smell of fresh mushrooms? Who IS Ada? 
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