Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011785, Tue, 6 Sep 2005 15:41:17 -0700

Subject
Fwd: Re: sexual references in spades? Wilde, Shaw, & ADA
Date
Body
" An aspect of Victorian life was not calling a spade a spade." - - Sandy


Dear Sandy,

Well, that's the cliché, isn't it - - but neither the divine Oscar nor any
of his characters that I can recall seem to suffer from sexual repression -
- not even of any kind. They blush and devise metaphors drawn from flowers
and bees, but it hardly seems possible that the author, his characters or
their audience didn't know exactly what was going on. "Earnest" is one of
the most sexual romps I know.

Carolyn

p.s. I've sometimes wondered if Nabokov didn't have in mind Shaw's "Mrs
Warren's Profession" when he devised Van's Venus villas. Mrs Warren runs a
very successful chain of brothels on the mainland, while trying to raise a
proper daughter in England. Of course the joke is that the innocent daughter
isn't.

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