-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [NABOKV-L] Mr and Mrs. Gutter Perchers, acrobats and "Ch" sound in DAR
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:08:05 -0500
From: Fet, Victor <fet@marshall.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
References: A <C1E28AD1.1631%skb@bootle.biz>


Just to explain to non-Russian readers :)

the singular and the most famous Russian source for Gutter-Perchers/"gutta-percha" is the Russian melodramatic novel by Dmitry Grigorovich (1822 - 1899) "The Guttapercha Boy" ("Guttaperchevyi mal'chik")(1883) about a young circus acrobat.
It is (or was) a mandatory reading for Russian children.

This novel which inaugurated the long tradition/subculture of innumerable pre-revolutionary "circus novels" (Alexander Kuprin, Mark Aldanov among the most vivid ones; continued by Andrey Sinyavsky in our times).


Victor Fet



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