Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0019017, Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:41:52 -0500

Subject
Re: Vadim's parents in LATH: a query
Date
Body

Demon could have fathered a son born as late as July 1899. Eighteen years after that date would be July 1917 which would be after the February revolution.









Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:55:32 -0800
From: vmylnikov@YAHOO.COM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Vadim's parents in LATH: a query
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU





maybe it is a hint that he had a different father?
Vladimir Mylnikov





From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark05@MAIL.RU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Mon, December 28, 2009 11:47:35 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Vadim's parents in LATH: a query




Speaking of his childhood, the hero and narrator of VN's LATH says about his parents: "I saw my parents infrequently. They divorced and remarried and redivorced at such a rapid rate that had the custodians of my fortune been less alert, I might have been auctioned out finally to a pair of strangers of Swedish or Scottish descent, with sad bags under hungry eyes" (Part I, ch. 2).
On the other hand, Vadim Vadimovich affirms that his father (whose society nickname was Demon and who, like Demon Veen, Van's father in ADA, was portrayed by Vrubel) "was born in 1865, married in 1896, and died in a pistol duel with a young Frenchman on October 22, 1898, after a card-table fracas at Deauville, some resort in gray Normandy" (Part II, ch. 5). It means that Vadim (who was eighteen when the Bolshevist revolution "struck") was born, like VN, in 1899 - or, at least, not earlier than October 25, 1898, and therefore he couldn't see his father, who was dead by the time of his birth, at all.

There must be among the List members a few experts on LATH. How do they explain this obvious inconsistency? Is it connected in any way with the fact that Andrew Field, VN's first biographer, persisted in his belief that the Bolshevist coup occured in 1916 (in which case Vadim's year of birth would be 1898 or even 1897)?

Alexey Sklayrenko



Search the archive
Contact the Editors
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"

Visit Zembla
View Nabokv-L Policies
Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.




Search the archive
Contact the Editors
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"

Visit Zembla
View Nabokv-L Policies
Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141665/direct/01/
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en

Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com

Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/








Attachment