Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006972, Sun, 27 Oct 2002 10:43:47 -0800

Subject
Fw: Pale Fire: Boyd/Alexander/Kunin Thread]
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jane Morrison" <JaneMorrison@compuserve.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
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> >>Next in the course of their review of the chamber, the searchers came to
> the cheval-glass,
> into whose depth they looked with an involuntary horror. But it was so
> turned as to show
> them nothing but the rosy glow playing on the roof, and the fire
sparkling
> in a hundred
> repetitions along the glazed front of the presses, and their own pale and
> fearful
> countenances stooping to look in.
>
> This of course is from Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Jekyll and
> Hyde.
>
> Carolyn Kunin
>
> P.S. The presses mentioned are glass presses that Dr Jekyll used to
> manufacture his own
> glass accoutrments for his chemical experiments, so the room in which the
> cheval glass is
> located is his private glass works. <<
>
> Surely "the glazed front of the presses" refers to another meaning
> of "press" -- 14. s.v. "press" in the 1st ed of the OED -- a cupboard,
> usually with shelves, for keeping books, clothes etc.
>