Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0007484, Wed, 29 Jan 2003 12:38:39 -0800

Subject
Fw: Tolstoy's Ghost/The Vane Sisters (fwd)
Date
Body
The photograph follows in the next message:

From: "Meredith Brosnan" <meredith@akula.com>

Attached is a photograph I recently came across at Sovfoto/Eastfoto, a
New York-based photo archive where I work. It appears to shed some light
on the cryptic words spoken by Leo Tolstoy's ghost at a seance described
in Nabokov's short story "The Vane Sisters":

"Finally, with a great crash and all kinds of shudderings and jiglike
movements on the part of the table, Leo Tolstoy visited our little group
and, when asked to identify himself by specific traits of terrene
habitation, launched upon a complex description of what seemed to be
some Russian type of architectural woodwork ('figures on boards - man,
horse, cock, man, horse, cock'), all of which was difficult to take
down, hard to understand, and impossible to verify."

The picture shows Count Tolstoy with members of his family (wife Sonya,
far right) on the veranda of the main house of the Tolstoys' estate,
Yasnaya Polyana, near Tula, Russia, c. 1895 .

THE ATTACHED PHOTOGRAPH IS COPYRIGHT SOVFOTO / EASTFOTO AND MUST NOT BE
REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION.