Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001746, Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:12:11 -0800

Subject
Re: "That in Aleppo Once ..." (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>

I think it's a reference to Gorky's recollections of Chekhov and a visit
to the Yalta's home of the writer by a woman who talks like a heroine in a
Chekhov's story. Here I quote from Koteliansky' translation for the
Woolfs' Hogarth Press:

Once a plump, healthy, handsome, well-dressed lady came to him and began
to speak a la Chekhov:

"Life is so boring, Anton Pavlovich. Everything is so grey: people, the
sea, even the flowers seem to me grey... And I have no desires... my soul
is in pain... it is like a disease."

"It is a disease," said Anton Pavlovich with conviction, "it is a disease;
in Latin it is called MORBUS FRAUDULENTUS."

Fortunately, the lady did not seem to know Latin, or, perhaps, she
pretended not to know it.


Galya Diment