Subject
Re: Fw: The Chronology in Transparent Things
From
Date
Body
Not that it matters but Russian candidate is roughly equivalent to PHD.
Master degree is equivalent to degree received after 5 years in Russian
colleges and universities. Russian PHD was more like advanced PHD
degree. I cannot say about recent times but it was certainly true for
the past.
- George
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 8:07 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: Fw: The Chronology in Transparent Things
----- Forwarded message from sklyarenko@users.mns.ru -----
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 02:39:26 +0400
From: alex <sklyarenko@users.mns.ru>
Dear all,
This old Sluchevsky-based chronology is all wrong. It should be based on
the
fact that the author of the Faust book is Turgenev and corrected
accordingly. I
think now that the year when "ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three years
ago a
Russian novelist" had visited Geneva is 1856. Turgenev left St.
Petersburg on
July 21/August, 1856, on a steamer going to Stettin, completed his
"Faust"
abroad and sent the manuskript to editors of The Contemporary on August
18/30.
Turgenev was heading to Courtaveneul (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong),
the
estate of Pauline Viardot, and possibly he spent most of August there,
but we
don't know this for sure. The only letter he wrote between Aug. 2 and
Aug. 30
(new style), to Nekrasov, is lost. So, it's a mystery where Turgenev was
all
that time. Theoretically, it is not impossible that he has visited
Geneva on
the way to Mme Viardot's estate, or that he has spent a few days in
Reykjavik,
Iceland.
A few more comments before I plunge back into ADA.
"He expects his friend Kandidatov, the painter, to join him here any
moment for
the outing, one of those lighthearted hikes that romantics would
undertake even
during a drizzly spell in August; his boots are still wet from a
ten-mile ramble
to the nearest casino."
A great hiker who didn't mind a long walk in the rain was Dostoevsky
(according
to the memoirs of his wife, Anna Grigor'evna). During his stay in Geneva
(in
the late 1860s I believe), and then in Vevey, he regularly walked to a
cafe to
read Russian newspapers there. He was a great lover of paintings (one of
his
friends was Perov). And, of course, he is famous for his gambling (but
not in
his Swiss period).
The same Dostoevsky says somewhere (in "The Winter Notes about the
Summer
Impressions"?) that the only romantic among contemporary Russian writers
is
Vsevolod Krestovsky (a minor novelist, something of a Russian Eugene
Sue).
Raining in Geneva (and love-making) is mentioned in one of Sluchevsky's
poems.
Perhaps, "a Russian novelist" is a composite figure after all? May be,
but,
personally, I would opt for Turgenev - because "Kandidatov" sounds like
a name
that you think you have met in his prose. Besides, the narrator (author
of the
letters) in "Faust" is "kandidat" (Candidate, a degree roughly
equivalent to
Master).
I think it's enough.
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 8:46 PM
Subject: Fw: The Chronology in Transparent Things
EDNOTE. I was deleting some old NABOKV-L files when I ran across this
2002
note
from Alexey Sklyarenko. Seem it is relevant to the TT discussion, I
pass it
on.
BTW, ALL NABOKV-l postings (going back over ten years) are archived
and
machine
searchable.
----- Original Message -----
From: alex
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2002 10:36 AM
Subject: The Chronology in Transparent Things
Liebe Freunde
und hochgeeherte Nabokovwissenschaftler!
I'm always fascinated by the free and unconstrained way in which
certain
critics
explain those VN novels that sometimes seem obscure and not quite
"durchsichtig"
to an ordinary reader.
If I'm not mistaken, not a single definite date is mentioned in
TRANSPARENT
THINGS, but one feels the presense of a strong calendar in the story.
The
information given by the narrator (allegedly the ghost of Mr. R., who
is at
home in the past and seems omniscient, being a kind of "spectral
observer")
about Hugh Person's four visits to Switzerland prompts the reader to
establish
the precise chronology of events in the novel. And the german critic,
who
reviews german translations of TT and LATH, rashly proposes such a
chronology
that turns out to be rather absurd. He dates the first visit as
happening in
1950 and the last - in 1972. But from the Chapter 4 of the novel we
know that
between the first and the last visits 18 (achtzehn) years have
elapsed, so one
of the dates suggested by the critic, or both, must be wrong. We also
learn
from that chapter that Hugh Person is twenty two at the time of the
first
visit
and forty when he dies, in his last visit. But I think that the clue
to the
novel's chronology should be looked for in the Chapter 6, when the
narrative
suddenly switches to the Swiss of the nineteenth century and there
appears a
Russian traveler, a young novelist ("a minor Dostoevski", as Nabokov
calls him
in one of the "interviews", SO, p. 195): "She [a prostitute] took him
[Hugh
Person] to one of the better beds in a hideous old roominghouse - to
the
precise "number," in fact, where ninety-one, ninty-two, nearly
ninety-three
years ago a Russian novelist had sojourned on his way to Italy." We
see then
this writer sitting at the deal table and pondering over a rudimentary
novel
under the provisional title Faust in Moscow while he is waiting for
his friend
Kandidatov, the painter. Alas, that painter turns out to be (most
probably)
invented, but can perhaps the writer be identified? I think, he can
and
suggest
that it is Konstantin Sluchevski (1837-1904) and that the novel he
writes has
metamorphosed eventually into the tale Professor Bessmertiya
("Professor of
Immortality") to be published under that title only in 1894 (it
contains an
inserted treatise of an invented amateur philosopher in which he tries
to
prove
scientifically the immortality of the human soul). The name Kandidatov
might
be
derived from the academic degree (kandidat - a degree roughly
equivalent to
Master) of another character (not the author of the treatise) in the
Sluchevski
tale. I think, Nabokov has here in mind Sluchevski's first visit to
Switzerland
(he stayed in Geneva, where he put up at the famous "Russian house," a
kind of
boarding-house), that took place in the August of 1860 (see my VN
Symposium
2002 paper soon to appear on the VN Museum Web site). Thus, we can
tentatively
attribute Hue Person's first visit to the so-called Switzerland to
1953. Then
he would revisit it in 1963, again in 1964 (in February) and, finally,
fatally
for him, in 1971.
A shift in one year is not excluded (1954... 1964, 1965... 1972),
because
Sluchevski spent some sommer weeks in Geneva (he was a student of the
Heidelberg University) also in 1861 (and in 1862, 1863, 1864).
The question is complicated and deserves a closer study than I have
conducted.
I
must confess that I haven't seen Brian Boyd's notes to TT or any
article/paper
devoted to the novel. Several events are mentioned in it (a distant
war, a
construction work around Witt, etc.) that could have helped to
establish the
precise chronology. Unfortunately, or, perhaps, fortunately, I am too
much
occupied with my translation of ADA and must now return to it. In the
end, I
would like to note, that it is not so much the outlines of Nabokov's
late
novels, but rather those of the critics' belated articles that are
"fading
away" (see the subtitle of the article). In the preamble to the
reviewer's
article Nabokov's novel is called "Unsichtbare Dinge" (Invisible
things)!
Elusive Nabokov indeed!
viele Gruesse,
Alexey Sklyarenko aus Sankt-Petersburg
----- End forwarded message -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
Master degree is equivalent to degree received after 5 years in Russian
colleges and universities. Russian PHD was more like advanced PHD
degree. I cannot say about recent times but it was certainly true for
the past.
- George
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
Behalf Of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 8:07 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: Fw: The Chronology in Transparent Things
----- Forwarded message from sklyarenko@users.mns.ru -----
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 02:39:26 +0400
From: alex <sklyarenko@users.mns.ru>
Dear all,
This old Sluchevsky-based chronology is all wrong. It should be based on
the
fact that the author of the Faust book is Turgenev and corrected
accordingly. I
think now that the year when "ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three years
ago a
Russian novelist" had visited Geneva is 1856. Turgenev left St.
Petersburg on
July 21/August, 1856, on a steamer going to Stettin, completed his
"Faust"
abroad and sent the manuskript to editors of The Contemporary on August
18/30.
Turgenev was heading to Courtaveneul (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong),
the
estate of Pauline Viardot, and possibly he spent most of August there,
but we
don't know this for sure. The only letter he wrote between Aug. 2 and
Aug. 30
(new style), to Nekrasov, is lost. So, it's a mystery where Turgenev was
all
that time. Theoretically, it is not impossible that he has visited
Geneva on
the way to Mme Viardot's estate, or that he has spent a few days in
Reykjavik,
Iceland.
A few more comments before I plunge back into ADA.
"He expects his friend Kandidatov, the painter, to join him here any
moment for
the outing, one of those lighthearted hikes that romantics would
undertake even
during a drizzly spell in August; his boots are still wet from a
ten-mile ramble
to the nearest casino."
A great hiker who didn't mind a long walk in the rain was Dostoevsky
(according
to the memoirs of his wife, Anna Grigor'evna). During his stay in Geneva
(in
the late 1860s I believe), and then in Vevey, he regularly walked to a
cafe to
read Russian newspapers there. He was a great lover of paintings (one of
his
friends was Perov). And, of course, he is famous for his gambling (but
not in
his Swiss period).
The same Dostoevsky says somewhere (in "The Winter Notes about the
Summer
Impressions"?) that the only romantic among contemporary Russian writers
is
Vsevolod Krestovsky (a minor novelist, something of a Russian Eugene
Sue).
Raining in Geneva (and love-making) is mentioned in one of Sluchevsky's
poems.
Perhaps, "a Russian novelist" is a composite figure after all? May be,
but,
personally, I would opt for Turgenev - because "Kandidatov" sounds like
a name
that you think you have met in his prose. Besides, the narrator (author
of the
letters) in "Faust" is "kandidat" (Candidate, a degree roughly
equivalent to
Master).
I think it's enough.
Alexey
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 8:46 PM
Subject: Fw: The Chronology in Transparent Things
EDNOTE. I was deleting some old NABOKV-L files when I ran across this
2002
note
from Alexey Sklyarenko. Seem it is relevant to the TT discussion, I
pass it
on.
BTW, ALL NABOKV-l postings (going back over ten years) are archived
and
machine
searchable.
----- Original Message -----
From: alex
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2002 10:36 AM
Subject: The Chronology in Transparent Things
Liebe Freunde
und hochgeeherte Nabokovwissenschaftler!
I'm always fascinated by the free and unconstrained way in which
certain
critics
explain those VN novels that sometimes seem obscure and not quite
"durchsichtig"
to an ordinary reader.
If I'm not mistaken, not a single definite date is mentioned in
TRANSPARENT
THINGS, but one feels the presense of a strong calendar in the story.
The
information given by the narrator (allegedly the ghost of Mr. R., who
is at
home in the past and seems omniscient, being a kind of "spectral
observer")
about Hugh Person's four visits to Switzerland prompts the reader to
establish
the precise chronology of events in the novel. And the german critic,
who
reviews german translations of TT and LATH, rashly proposes such a
chronology
that turns out to be rather absurd. He dates the first visit as
happening in
1950 and the last - in 1972. But from the Chapter 4 of the novel we
know that
between the first and the last visits 18 (achtzehn) years have
elapsed, so one
of the dates suggested by the critic, or both, must be wrong. We also
learn
from that chapter that Hugh Person is twenty two at the time of the
first
visit
and forty when he dies, in his last visit. But I think that the clue
to the
novel's chronology should be looked for in the Chapter 6, when the
narrative
suddenly switches to the Swiss of the nineteenth century and there
appears a
Russian traveler, a young novelist ("a minor Dostoevski", as Nabokov
calls him
in one of the "interviews", SO, p. 195): "She [a prostitute] took him
[Hugh
Person] to one of the better beds in a hideous old roominghouse - to
the
precise "number," in fact, where ninety-one, ninty-two, nearly
ninety-three
years ago a Russian novelist had sojourned on his way to Italy." We
see then
this writer sitting at the deal table and pondering over a rudimentary
novel
under the provisional title Faust in Moscow while he is waiting for
his friend
Kandidatov, the painter. Alas, that painter turns out to be (most
probably)
invented, but can perhaps the writer be identified? I think, he can
and
suggest
that it is Konstantin Sluchevski (1837-1904) and that the novel he
writes has
metamorphosed eventually into the tale Professor Bessmertiya
("Professor of
Immortality") to be published under that title only in 1894 (it
contains an
inserted treatise of an invented amateur philosopher in which he tries
to
prove
scientifically the immortality of the human soul). The name Kandidatov
might
be
derived from the academic degree (kandidat - a degree roughly
equivalent to
Master) of another character (not the author of the treatise) in the
Sluchevski
tale. I think, Nabokov has here in mind Sluchevski's first visit to
Switzerland
(he stayed in Geneva, where he put up at the famous "Russian house," a
kind of
boarding-house), that took place in the August of 1860 (see my VN
Symposium
2002 paper soon to appear on the VN Museum Web site). Thus, we can
tentatively
attribute Hue Person's first visit to the so-called Switzerland to
1953. Then
he would revisit it in 1963, again in 1964 (in February) and, finally,
fatally
for him, in 1971.
A shift in one year is not excluded (1954... 1964, 1965... 1972),
because
Sluchevski spent some sommer weeks in Geneva (he was a student of the
Heidelberg University) also in 1861 (and in 1862, 1863, 1864).
The question is complicated and deserves a closer study than I have
conducted.
I
must confess that I haven't seen Brian Boyd's notes to TT or any
article/paper
devoted to the novel. Several events are mentioned in it (a distant
war, a
construction work around Witt, etc.) that could have helped to
establish the
precise chronology. Unfortunately, or, perhaps, fortunately, I am too
much
occupied with my translation of ADA and must now return to it. In the
end, I
would like to note, that it is not so much the outlines of Nabokov's
late
novels, but rather those of the critics' belated articles that are
"fading
away" (see the subtitle of the article). In the preamble to the
reviewer's
article Nabokov's novel is called "Unsichtbare Dinge" (Invisible
things)!
Elusive Nabokov indeed!
viele Gruesse,
Alexey Sklyarenko aus Sankt-Petersburg
----- End forwarded message -----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----