Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0025565, Sat, 26 Jul 2014 14:23:49 +0300

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Marx pere & Dumas in Ada
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Van Veen [as also, in his small way, the editor of Ada] liked to change his abode at the end of a section or chapter or even paragraph, and he had almost finished a difficult bit dealing with the divorce between time and the contents of time (such as action on matter, in space, and the nature of space itself) and was contemplating moving to Manhattan (that kind of switch being a reflection of mental rubrication rather than a concession to some farcical 'influence of environment' endorsed by Marx pere, the popular author of 'historical' plays), when he received an unexpected dorophone call which for a moment affected violently his entire pulmonary and systemic circulation. (2.5)

In his essay Dyuma-otets ("Dumas pere," 1930) Kuprin mentions Karl Marx:

Однако я знавал немало людей "с убеждениями", которые для виду держали на полках Маркса, Чернышевского и Михайловского, а в укромном уголке хранили потихоньку полное собрание Дюма в сафьяновых переплётах. Леонид Андреев, человек высокого таланта и глубоких страданий, не раз говорил, что Дюма - самый любимый его писатель. Молодой Горький тоже обожал Дюма.
I knew a lot of people "with principles" who for show had on their bookshelves Marx, Chernyshevski and Mikhaylovski but in a secret nook kept the complete works of Dumas in morocco binding. Leonid Andreev and Gorky also adored Dumas.

Kuprin wrote his essay in 1919 but left the manuscript behind in Gatchina and, living in Paris, had to restore the text from memory:

Этот очерк был написан мною в 1919 году по данным, которые я усердно разыскивал в С.-Петербургской публичной библиотеке. Света ему так и не довелось увидеть: при отходе, вместе с северо-западной армией, от Гатчины я ничего не успел взять из дома, кроме портрета Толстого с автографом. Поэтому и пишу сейчас наизусть, по смутной памяти, кусками.

The only thing Kuprin took into exile was Tolstoy's portrait with autograph.
In his memoirs Ocherki bylogo ("The Sketches of the Past", 1949) Sergey Lvovich Tolstoy says that, in the last decade of his life, Leo Tolstoy believed that all people were more or less innocent and that poor conditions and environment (sreda) were alone to blame:

А я думаю, что в нём в то время уже зарождалась та мысль, которую он высказал позднее, в последний год своей жизни: «Нет в мире виноватых», считая, что настоящими виновниками являются условия и среда, их породившие, и набросал рассказ под этим заглавием. (L. N. Tolstoy in the Crimea in 1901-02. Meetings with Chekhov and Gorky)

On the other hand, Marx pere seems to hint at Shakespeare (Shaxpere), the author of history plays.
According to Sergey Lvovich Tolstoy, his father admired Chekhov's stories but disliked his plays:

Он высоко ценил некоторые рассказы Чехова, но его драматические произведения не одобрял и говорил: «Ваши, пьесы, Антон Павлович, слабее даже шекспировских».
"Your plays, Anton Pavlovich, are even weaker than Shakespeare's." (ibid.)

Btw., Chekhov is the author of a (never published) abridged Russian version of Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" (see Chekhov's letter of Dec. 18, 1893, to Suvorin).

Like Marx, Dumas is mentioned in Ada:

AAA explained, he remembered, to a Negro lad with whom Van had scrapped, that Pushkin and Dumas had African blood, upon which the lad showed AAA his tongue, a new interesting trick which Van emulated at the earliest occasion and was slapped by the younger of the Misses Fortune, put it back in your face, sir, she said. (1.24)

In Kuprin's essay Dumas is called "a Negro" at least twice:

Было уже почти темно. Навстречу им шёл, слегка покачиваясь, какой-то местный гражданин. Увидев Дюма, он радостно воскликнул:
- А, вот он, этот знаменитый негр!
"Тогда я, - говорит Дюма в своих мемуарах, - взял его одной рукой за шиворот, а другой за штаны, в том месте, где спина теряет свое почётное наименование, и швырнул его, как котёнка, в воду.

Прекрасный писатель, который теперь почти забыт, но до сих пор ещё неувядаемо ценен, Шарль Нодье, который очень любил Дюма и многое сделал для его блистательной карьеры, говорил иногда своему молодому другу:
- Ах, уж мне эти негры! Всегда их влекут к себе блестящие побрякушки!

On the other hand, Kuprin speaks of literary "Negros" who allegedly worked for Dumas:

...Но вот тут-то мы как раз и подошли к чрезвычайно сложным, запутанным и щекотливым литературным вопросам. С самых давних времён весьма много было говорено о вольном и невольном плагиате, о литературных "неграх", о пользовании чужими, хотя бы очень старыми, хотя бы совсем забытыми, хотя бы никогда не имевшими успеха сюжетами и так далее. Шекспир по этому поводу говорил:
- Я беру мое добро там, где его нахожу.
Дюма на ту же самую тему сказал с истинно французской образностью:
- Сделал ли я плохо, если, встретив прекрасную девушку в грязной, грубой и тёмной компании, я взял её за руку и ввёл в порядочное общество?
И не Наполеон ли обронил однажды жестокое слово:
- Я пользуюсь славою тех, которые её недостойны. Коллективное творчество имеет множество видов, условий и оттенков. Во всяком случае, на фасаде выстроенного дома ставит своё имя архитектор, а не каменщик, и не маляры, и не землекопы.

Kuprin attributes Moliere's words "je prends mon bien ou je le trouve" to Shakespeare and Shakespeare's reply to the accusations of plagiarism to Dumas. He also says that it is the architect who leaves his name on the facade of the building he erected.

According to Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy, arkhiteror vinovat ("the architect is to blame") was a proverbial phrase in Tolstoy's family. It brings to mind David van Veen, a Flemish architect who built one hundred floramors in memory of his grandson Eric, the author of the essay 'Villa Venus: an Organized Dream.' Eric's project "derived from reading too many erotic works found in a furnished house his grandfather had bought near Vence from Count Tolstoy, a Russian or Pole." (2.3) The floramors bring to mind the brothels in Kuprin's Yama ("The Pit," 1909-15), but also La dame aux camelias of Dumas fils (who gave refuge to his father in the latter's old age).

The challenge was accepted; two native seconds were chosen; the Baron plumped for swords; and after a certain amount of good blood (Polish and Irish - a kind of American 'Gory Mary' in barroom parlance) had bespattered two hairy torsoes, the whitewashed terrace, the flight of steps leading backward to the walled garden in an amusing Douglas d'Artagnan arrangement, the apron of a quite accidental milkmaid, and the shirtsleeves of both seconds, charming Monsieur de Pastrouil and Colonel St Alin, a scoundrel, the latter gentlemen separated the panting combatants, and Skonky died, not 'of his wounds' (as it was viciously rumored) but of a gangrenous afterthought on the part of the least of them, possibly self-inflicted, a sting in the groin, which caused circulatory trouble, notwithstanding quite a few surgical interventions during two or three years of protracted stays at the Aardvark Hospital in Boston - a city where, incidentally, he married in 1869 our friend the Bohemian lady, now keeper of Glass Biota at the local museum. (1.2)

D'Artagnan is the main character in "The Three Musketeers." Douglas Fairbanks played d'Artagnan in a Hollywood film version of Dumas' novel. In Ilf and Petrov's "The Golden Calf" (1931) the fat samovar face of Douglas Fairbanks is mentioned. According to Valentin Kataev (Evgeniy Petrov's elder brother), he wanted to become a Soviet Dumas (using his brother and Ilya Ilf as his literary "Negros"). He gave up the idea when he saw that the beginning of "The Twelve Chairs" (1928) was good enough and did not require polishing (Sbornik vospominaniy ob I. Ilfe i E. Petrove, M., 1963). Btw., Marx is mentioned in both novels of the Ostap Bender series.

Alexey Sklyarenko

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