Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0021380, Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:30:45 EST

Subject
Re: Yet another reconsideration of Pale Fire
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This is the passage on Hodge that immediately precedes PF's epigraph. I
doubt that it's relevant, although the Johnson/Boswell relationship is
analogous to JS (SJ reversed) and CK (move the initials JB one letter and you get
KC, CK reversed). Interesting.

**************


Nor would it be just, under this head, to omit the fondness which he
shewed for animals which he had taken under his protection. I never
shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat: for
whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters, lest the servants
having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature. I am,
unluckily, one of those who have an antipathy to a cat, so that I am
uneasy when in the room with one; and I own, I frequently suffered a
good deal from the presence of this same Hodge. I recollect him one day
scrambling up Dr. Johnson's breast, apparently with much satisfaction,
while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and
pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying,
'Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;' and
then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, 'but he is
a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.'



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