Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023267, Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:20:56 +0300

Subject
Elsie de Nord
Date
Body
In Ada Elsie de Nord is a literary critic ("vulgar literary demimondaine who thought that Lyovin went about Moscow in a nagol'nyi tulup:" 1.10).

In Ilf and Petrov's The Twelve Chairs (chapter XIII: "Breathe Deeper: You're Excited!") Prince of Denmark is a reporter who writes for the Stargorod Pravda:

В "Старгородской правде" трамвайным вопросом занялся известный всему городу фельетонист Принц Датский, писавший теперь под псевдонимом "Маховик". (In the Stargorod Truth the tram story was reported by the "Prince of Denmark", writer of humorous pieces, known to the whole town under the penname of "Flywheel".*)

In the same chapter of the Ilf & Petrov novel "the acrobats of the pen" (bourgeois press, cf. Mascodagama and the cartoonists in Ada) and a bridge across the Hudson (cf. Lucette's words in Ada: "I will jump into Goodson River, if I can't hope to have you:" 2.8) are mentioned:

He remembered hearing a speech by a French Communist at a meeting in Moscow. The Frenchman was talking about the bourgeois press. "Those acrobats of the pen, those virtuosos of farce, those jackals of the rotary press," he exclaimed.

Then he shook Gavrilin's hand for a long time and said: "You're a strange one! You should learn to build railway bridges. It's a wonderful science, and the chief thing is that it's so simple. A bridge across the Hudson..."

*innacurate translation

Alexey Sklyarenko

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