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Fw: The Nabokov Centennial in Montreux: April 23, 1999
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EDITOR's NOTE. Galya Korovina, who has a translation business in New York,
has written about and photographed many of the Nabokov Centennial events
that
took place in Europe and America. Her photographs may be seen on ZEMBLA.
The article below describes the VN centennial celebration in Montreux where
the Nabokovs spent their last years. NABOKV-L thanks Galya for this memento
on Nabokov's 101st birthday.
>---------------------------
>>This message was originally submitted by Gkorovina@AOL.COM to the NABOKV-L
>liist at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
APRIL 23, 1999, MONTREUX
For the second time I came to Montreux on April 22nd, 1999.
For the first time I was here ten years ago, when Russia was still
under the Soviet government. Every singly thing that was happening to me
then
was equally unreal: I was in Switzerland, and I was there on a private
invitation! (that is, I was NOT a member of a wary delegation with a rabid
paranoiac leader and a program with a lavish dose of Lenin’s memorial
places, or, failing that, Communist history places). I was in Switzerland,
and I
was absolutely free and I could do anything I wanted, and I took a train to
Montreux.. . . It was early September, there were tourists everywhere, and
the streets of the town, the narrow park that stretched along Lake Geneva,
even the Montreux Palace Hotel -- everything here belonged to them.
Nabokov's memory was my private delight, and it seemed natural that I had
nobody with whom to share it. Nabokov was an elite writer, and I had
ceased to be surprised that my Moscow friends knew his name much better than
many
foreigners I met in Moscow. Even the "Lolita" prompt did not necessarily
evoke the name of her creator.
In April 1999 I found everything changed. Montreux was celebrating the
100th anniversary of its famous inhabitant, who had become a recognized
classic of world literature by the end of the century. On my way to the
hotel from the railway station (a 5-minute taxi ride at most), I noticed
several beautiful posters with VN's 1967 photo by Horst Tappe and in large
bold letters, "NABOKOV." Later, on closer inspection, I realized this was
the Musee du Vieux Montreux inviting the public to the special exhibition
in honor of Nabokov's centenary.
>>
Outwardly the Montreux Palace Hotel seemed completely unchanged. The
Nabokovs moved there in 1961, and soon settled on the sixth floor in the
old, right wing of the hotel, which is called "Le Cygne" ("The Swan"), "v
lebedinoi chasti" (in the swan part), as Nabokov inscribed on the floor
plan of their rooms in his letter to his sister Elena Sikorski(1). In his
1972
interview for Vogue, Nabokov said: “We dwell in the older part of the
Palace Hotel, in its original part really, which was all that existed a
hundred
and fifty years ago (you can still see that initial inn and our future
windows
in old prints of 1840 or so)”(2). The "Hotel du Cygne” wing, built in 1837,
is
connected by a passage to the main building, built in 1906.
Inside, however, the most important feature of the Montreux Palace--its
elegant anonymity--had changed. The hotel was celebrating the 100th
anniversary of its most famous and loyal dweller. The Montreux Palace Hotel
had had its share of famous guests who had stayed there for extended
periods of time, for example, Sarah Bernhardt and Richard Strauss, but none
of them
had made it their home for sixteen years. The magnificent lobby on the
second floor was no longer imposing but rather was occupied by the
exhibition "Les yeux du papillon" curated by Daniella Ripple from Munich.
Mounted on
the dull mirrored surface of two hollow cylinders, the exhibits, which had
beautiful shaded lighting, included, among other things, Nabokov's family
photos, a map of their American travels, his famous index cards, books,
and, of course butterflies.
>>
The Nabokovs settled on the sixth floor of the hotel in 1962. “Our
quarters consist of several tiny rooms with two and a half bathrooms, the
result of two apartments having been recently fused. The sequence is:
kitchen, living-dining room, my wife’s room, my room, a former kitchenette
now full of my papers, and our son’s former room, now converted into a
study. The apartment is cluttered with books, folders, and files. What
might be
termed rather grandly a library is a back room housing my published works,
and there are shelves in the attic whose skylight is much frequented by
pigeons and Alpine choughs.”(2) The sixth floor of the hotel, where the
Nabokovs settled in 1962, now had been officially named "Nabokov's Floor".
Displayed there was a beautiful 1967 photo of Nabokov by Philippe Halsman
and a memorial plaque:
>>
6-eme Etage
Vladimir Nabokov
Chambres
60-69
>>
To quote the hotel: “Nabokov considered “his sixth floor” as a private
place. He received his visitors and friends at the Music lounge at
teatime.”
(Other sources suggest that “The Green Salon” on the main floor was the
meeting place)
>>
Each multi-star luxury hotel must have its own glossy magazine. The
Montreux Palace Magazine was trilingual -- French, English, and Russian (I
guess that when this issue was printed the super-rich new Russian guests
had probably not yet become the subject of close scrutiny by Swiss banking
authorities). The magazine contained an article on Nabokov with lovely
photographs by an unnamed photographer which I had never seen before rather
than the well-known Nabokoviana photos.
Nabokov loved the narrow park between the hotel and the lake, where
many trees exotic for Switzerland had been planted. In September 1965,
Nabokov
took for a walk in the park Robert Hughes, the Television 13 correspondent,
and showed him the Sacred Tree: “This is a ginkgo -- the sacred tree of
China, now rare in the wild state. The curiously veined leaf resembles a
butterfly which reminds me of a little poem:
>>
>>The gingko leaf, in golden hue, when shed,
>> A muscat grape,
>> Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill-spread,
>> In shape.
>>
This, in my novel Pale Fire, is a short poem by John Shade -- by far the
greatest of invented poets.”(3)
>>
Montreux is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, which has a
different name in French: "Lac Leman." Nabokov called it "Lemanskoye ozero"
in the
same letter to his sister. In season there are many butterflies around
Montreux. In April it was too cold still for real butterflies, but in the
hotel park
there were huge grass butterflies waiting for spring to blossom -- yet
another tribute to the dweller who made the Montreux Palace famous. I
doubt, though, that Nabokov would have liked this intrusion of alien
aesthetics in
the park, which did not include anything unnecessary in 1906, as depicted
on a postcard from the time. Nabokov was not happy when a parking lot and
an
outdoor swimming pool were constructed in the park. Nabokov used the area
around the pool, where sunbathers lounged on deck chairs: in Philippe
Halsman's famous 1966 photo, strong, tanned handsome Nabokov stands smiling
next to Vйra, who is sitting in a canvas deck chair, also smiling, wearing
the Lolita heart-shaped sunglasses given to her by Irving Lazar, Nabokov's
Hollywood agent. Regarding the pool, he said during that 1965 walk with
Robert Hughs while passing the swimming pool: “I don’t mind sharing sun
with sunbathers but I dislike immersing myself in a swimming pool. It is
after
all only a big tub where other people join you -- makes one think of those
horrible Japanese communal bathtubs, full of a floating family, or a shoal
of businessmen.” (3)
>>
About twenty minutes from Montreux is the small neighboring town of
Clarens, where Vladimir and Vera Nabokov are buried in the local cemetery.
The simple gray granite tombstone bears an inscription that states the main
thing about Nabokov--that he was the Writer:
>>Vladimir Nabokov
>>Ecrivain 1899-1977
>>Vera Nabokov
>>1902-1991
>>
Blossoming flowers had been planted around the Nabokov's well-kept
grave, and there were several vases of fresh flowers on the grave. Clearly
people had visited the grave just recently. In February 1972, when Vogue
correspondent asked Nabokov whether there was any truth in the rumor that
he was thinking of leaving Montreux forever, Nabokov answered: “Well, there
is
a rumor that sooner or later everybody living now in Montreux will leave it
forever.” (2)
April 23rd, 1999, in Montreux was a clear day, a little windy. A warm
rain had sprinkled in the late afternoon, and then the sun had come out
again for a short while. At that moment I photographed the still-wet Grand
Rue
from my balcony at the Montreux Palace.
In the lobby of the ground floor was the statue of a
knickerbokers-wearing Nabokov that had caused so much gossip. The statue
was the first joint work done by two Moscow sculptors, father and son,
Alexander and Philip Rukavishnikov. Alexander Rukavishnikov is a People's
Artist of
Russia (the highest official honor), an Academician of the Russian Academy
of Arts, a Professor, and the Head of Sculpture Workshop at the prestigious
Surikov Higher Art School. He has sculpted several well-known monuments,
including the monument to Dostoevsky at the Lenin Library in Moscow and a
monument to Tatishchev, the founder of the city of Stavropol on the Volga
(which used to have an Orwellian name of Togliatti, after the late Italian
Communist Party leader Palmiro Togliatti, because Russian knock-off Fiat
was manufactured in this city). Rukavishnikov read all of Nabokov's novels
written in Russian and considered Nabokov a great writer who had returned
the gift of the word to a nation consumed by novoyaz ("new lingo," a mongrel
Russian developed in the Soviet era with many new words to describe new
realities and further "enriched" by the unleashed post-perestroika invasion
of the outside world). Rukavishnikov the younger, who speaks good English,
read many Nabokov works both in Russian and in English and fell in love
with Nabokov's prose as a teenager, when his mother gave him Podvig (Glory).
Father and son decided not to use the expected props of butterflies and the
butterfly net; and as far as the knickerbockers go, wasn't this the garment
that someone who closely evoked Nabokov wore on his return to Russia?
>>
This sculpture, which was going to be placed at the entrance to the
Montreux Palace Hotel, was a gift, but a gift to the town of Montreux
rather then to the hotel, from Moscow and Muscovites, as announced in a
letter
from Yuri Luzhkov, the short powerhouse of a Mayor of Moscow (nicknamed
"Atas," for "Watch Out!"). In his letter, Yuri Luzhkov quoted what is
probably the
best-known Nabokov poem in Russia:
>
“Amazing, though, that at the last indention,
despite proofreaders and my age’s ban,
a Russian branch’s shall be playing
upon the marble of my hand.”
>>
The second part of this prophecy was embodied in bronze in the lobby of
the Montreux Palace -- the first, but I am sure not the last monument to
Nabokov. The Muscovites, though, wanted to go all the way to fulfilling
Nabokov's prophecy. Ludmila Shvetsova, Mayor Luzhkov's representative (she
has now been promoted very high, as I was informed recently) had appeared
at the opening ceremony with a huge basket of "Russian branches" such as
field
flowers and mountain ash berries to cast the appropriate shadow, thus
distracting me from the solemn glory of the unveiling ceremony with a
mundane admiring question: How did she manage to get this Russian ikebana
past the
“plants and produce” control at the Swiss customs?
>>
The Nabokov Celebration was organized by the Montreux Palace Hotel,
which explains its international and ceremonial overtones, noticeably
different
from the intellectual splendors of the New York Town Hall Pen Club Tribute,
or Glenn Horowitz Booksellers party for Vera's Butterflies. The Montreux
Palace ceremony speakers included His Excellency Ambassador Petrovsky, the
Head of the European UN Department, the aforementioned Ludmila Shchvetsova
from the Moscow Mayor Office, the Mayor of Montreux, and other no less
important dignitaries. But this was not the whole story: Philip
Rukavishnikov said clever things about the writer Vladimir Sirin, two very
young ladies from St. Petersburg, a pianist and a violinist, played
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Venyavsky, and after the recital Dmitri
Nabokov unexpectedly and touchingly spoke about his mother. The Nabokovs'
blissful
marriage lasted for 52 years, and it was here, at the Montreux Palace, on
April 15, 1975, that Nabokov drew on a simple sheet of paper a tender
butterfly with half-opened wings and wrote under it: “Here we are at last,
my darling 15.iv.1925--15.iv.1975” (4)
>>
After the official unveiling the hotel invited us in for cocktails.
The festive crowd included the aforementioned officials, rich art patrons,
both
New Russian and Western, publishers, Rukavishnikov's friends, several
requisite well-groomed young beauties, and an occasional Nabokov scholar,
such as Gavriel Shapiro or Lara Delage-Toriel. After that there was a
dinner at the famous hotel restaurant, and then we had Champagne at the bar.
After that the Rukavishnikovs invited us to toast the anniversary in the
rooms
where Nabokov lived for so many years -- the hotel had put the
Rukavishnikovs in the Vladimir Nabokov Chambers. The party was very lively,
everyone
spoke all at once, Philip Rukavishnikov recited poetry. I was trying to
imagine
exactly how these rooms looked when Nabokov lived there.
>>
The hospitable Rukavishnikovs also invited everyone to the Vladimir
Nabokov Chambers the next morning, to say good-bye as Russian custom
requires, with “pososhok” (“one for the road”). I was happy to have a
chance to look out from Nabokov's balcony at the lake and snow-covered
mountains
on the other, French side of the lake. This was the same balcony where
Nabokov was photographed by several excellent photographers, and, though no
longer
young, he looks exquisite in these photos. The morning after the Nabokov
centenary was milky-gray. Fog rested on the snow-covered mountains that
Nabokov used to sketch. It looked like it was going to rain, but I had to
go out because I wanted to see Nabokov's exhibition at the Musee du Vieux
Montreux.
>>
The museum was in an old building in the old part of the town. The
Nabokov exhibition called “Nabokov а Montreux: entre ecriture et
papillions” >>(“Nabokov in Montreux: between writing and butterflies”) was
on several
floors. Visitors were greeted on the first floor by a video of the famous
Nabokov interview with Bernard Pivot for the program "Apostrophes." Nearby
on the wall was a haunting poster for the opera "Lolita" by Rodion
Shchedrin, which was staged at the Royal Swedish Opera. The libretto was in
Swedish,
due to copyright restrictions. The second floor had exhibits related to
VN's life in Montreux: stunning Horst Tappe photographs, VN's standing desk,
furniture from his rooms at the Montreux Palace, Nabokov's books with the
butterfly drawings he inscribed to the people closest to him. Also, there
was a chess board for solving chess problems composed by Nabokov. The
third floor display showed VN's butterfly collections labeled “La collection
Nabokov du Musйe cantonal de zoologie” (Nabokov’s Collection at the Canton
Zoological Museum).
>>
When asked the “Why Montreux?” question Nabokov mentioned one of the
pleasant surprises that Montreux had in store for him: the view of the
lake, “wonderfully soothing and exhilarating according to my mood or mood of
the
lake”(3). Indeed, if you look at the lake from the Montreux Palace
balcony, the lake does surprise you because it can change from moment to
moment. I
brought back several rolls of film with just the view of the lake -- every
time I looked at it, I had the urge to take the camera, and I did, because
every time I thought I would never see such a beautiful light effect again.
>>
Answering the “Montreux” question, Nabokov also mentioned a
metaphorical "easy chair"(3). To understand this term better, I asked
several Americans
to describe "an easy chair," and those who do creative work invariably
agreed with me that it was a comfortable chair for reading and writing in,
not
lazing the days away. Nabokov moved into the Montreux Palace when he was
62.
Many people who are this age decide that this is a good time to retire.
Nabokov, though he mentioned “the pleasant surprise of a metaphorical
sunset in charming surroundings” (5), actually never stopped working and had
big
plans for the future. I think that for understanding the “Nabokov and
Montreux” issue, the view of the ever-changing lake and never-changing
Montreux is not the most important thing. It is probably enough to look at
the “Nabokov” shelf in your bookcase at “Pale Fire” -- he finished this
novel in Montreux, “Ada,” “Speak, Memory,” “Transparent Things,” “Look at
the
Harlequins!” “Lolita” in Russian translated by Nabokov, then the superb
translations that he edited there, such as, for example, “The Gift,” “The
Eye,” “The Defense,” “Despair,” magic Russian stories and, of course,
“Strong Opinions.” Hopefully, the excerpts from “The Original of Laura”
will also
appear on this shelf. Making sure that these books would be on our shelves
was probably the main reason Nabokov lived in Montreux.
>>
NOTES
(1) Perepiska s sestroi (“Correspondence with my sister”), Ardis, Ann Arbor,
1985.
(2) Interview with Susan Morini, Vogue writer, February 3rd, 1972, “Strong
Opinions”
(3) Interview with Robert Hughes , Television 13 , September, 1965, “Strong
Opinions”
(4) Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977, edited by Dmitri Nabokov
and Matthew J. Bruccoli.
(5) Interview with Kurt Hoffman, Bayerischer Rundfunk, October 1971,
“Strong Opinions”
has written about and photographed many of the Nabokov Centennial events
that
took place in Europe and America. Her photographs may be seen on ZEMBLA.
The article below describes the VN centennial celebration in Montreux where
the Nabokovs spent their last years. NABOKV-L thanks Galya for this memento
on Nabokov's 101st birthday.
>---------------------------
>>This message was originally submitted by Gkorovina@AOL.COM to the NABOKV-L
>liist at LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
APRIL 23, 1999, MONTREUX
For the second time I came to Montreux on April 22nd, 1999.
For the first time I was here ten years ago, when Russia was still
under the Soviet government. Every singly thing that was happening to me
then
was equally unreal: I was in Switzerland, and I was there on a private
invitation! (that is, I was NOT a member of a wary delegation with a rabid
paranoiac leader and a program with a lavish dose of Lenin’s memorial
places, or, failing that, Communist history places). I was in Switzerland,
and I
was absolutely free and I could do anything I wanted, and I took a train to
Montreux.. . . It was early September, there were tourists everywhere, and
the streets of the town, the narrow park that stretched along Lake Geneva,
even the Montreux Palace Hotel -- everything here belonged to them.
Nabokov's memory was my private delight, and it seemed natural that I had
nobody with whom to share it. Nabokov was an elite writer, and I had
ceased to be surprised that my Moscow friends knew his name much better than
many
foreigners I met in Moscow. Even the "Lolita" prompt did not necessarily
evoke the name of her creator.
In April 1999 I found everything changed. Montreux was celebrating the
100th anniversary of its famous inhabitant, who had become a recognized
classic of world literature by the end of the century. On my way to the
hotel from the railway station (a 5-minute taxi ride at most), I noticed
several beautiful posters with VN's 1967 photo by Horst Tappe and in large
bold letters, "NABOKOV." Later, on closer inspection, I realized this was
the Musee du Vieux Montreux inviting the public to the special exhibition
in honor of Nabokov's centenary.
>>
Outwardly the Montreux Palace Hotel seemed completely unchanged. The
Nabokovs moved there in 1961, and soon settled on the sixth floor in the
old, right wing of the hotel, which is called "Le Cygne" ("The Swan"), "v
lebedinoi chasti" (in the swan part), as Nabokov inscribed on the floor
plan of their rooms in his letter to his sister Elena Sikorski(1). In his
1972
interview for Vogue, Nabokov said: “We dwell in the older part of the
Palace Hotel, in its original part really, which was all that existed a
hundred
and fifty years ago (you can still see that initial inn and our future
windows
in old prints of 1840 or so)”(2). The "Hotel du Cygne” wing, built in 1837,
is
connected by a passage to the main building, built in 1906.
Inside, however, the most important feature of the Montreux Palace--its
elegant anonymity--had changed. The hotel was celebrating the 100th
anniversary of its most famous and loyal dweller. The Montreux Palace Hotel
had had its share of famous guests who had stayed there for extended
periods of time, for example, Sarah Bernhardt and Richard Strauss, but none
of them
had made it their home for sixteen years. The magnificent lobby on the
second floor was no longer imposing but rather was occupied by the
exhibition "Les yeux du papillon" curated by Daniella Ripple from Munich.
Mounted on
the dull mirrored surface of two hollow cylinders, the exhibits, which had
beautiful shaded lighting, included, among other things, Nabokov's family
photos, a map of their American travels, his famous index cards, books,
and, of course butterflies.
>>
The Nabokovs settled on the sixth floor of the hotel in 1962. “Our
quarters consist of several tiny rooms with two and a half bathrooms, the
result of two apartments having been recently fused. The sequence is:
kitchen, living-dining room, my wife’s room, my room, a former kitchenette
now full of my papers, and our son’s former room, now converted into a
study. The apartment is cluttered with books, folders, and files. What
might be
termed rather grandly a library is a back room housing my published works,
and there are shelves in the attic whose skylight is much frequented by
pigeons and Alpine choughs.”(2) The sixth floor of the hotel, where the
Nabokovs settled in 1962, now had been officially named "Nabokov's Floor".
Displayed there was a beautiful 1967 photo of Nabokov by Philippe Halsman
and a memorial plaque:
>>
6-eme Etage
Vladimir Nabokov
Chambres
60-69
>>
To quote the hotel: “Nabokov considered “his sixth floor” as a private
place. He received his visitors and friends at the Music lounge at
teatime.”
(Other sources suggest that “The Green Salon” on the main floor was the
meeting place)
>>
Each multi-star luxury hotel must have its own glossy magazine. The
Montreux Palace Magazine was trilingual -- French, English, and Russian (I
guess that when this issue was printed the super-rich new Russian guests
had probably not yet become the subject of close scrutiny by Swiss banking
authorities). The magazine contained an article on Nabokov with lovely
photographs by an unnamed photographer which I had never seen before rather
than the well-known Nabokoviana photos.
Nabokov loved the narrow park between the hotel and the lake, where
many trees exotic for Switzerland had been planted. In September 1965,
Nabokov
took for a walk in the park Robert Hughes, the Television 13 correspondent,
and showed him the Sacred Tree: “This is a ginkgo -- the sacred tree of
China, now rare in the wild state. The curiously veined leaf resembles a
butterfly which reminds me of a little poem:
>>
>>The gingko leaf, in golden hue, when shed,
>> A muscat grape,
>> Is an old-fashioned butterfly, ill-spread,
>> In shape.
>>
This, in my novel Pale Fire, is a short poem by John Shade -- by far the
greatest of invented poets.”(3)
>>
Montreux is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, which has a
different name in French: "Lac Leman." Nabokov called it "Lemanskoye ozero"
in the
same letter to his sister. In season there are many butterflies around
Montreux. In April it was too cold still for real butterflies, but in the
hotel park
there were huge grass butterflies waiting for spring to blossom -- yet
another tribute to the dweller who made the Montreux Palace famous. I
doubt, though, that Nabokov would have liked this intrusion of alien
aesthetics in
the park, which did not include anything unnecessary in 1906, as depicted
on a postcard from the time. Nabokov was not happy when a parking lot and
an
outdoor swimming pool were constructed in the park. Nabokov used the area
around the pool, where sunbathers lounged on deck chairs: in Philippe
Halsman's famous 1966 photo, strong, tanned handsome Nabokov stands smiling
next to Vйra, who is sitting in a canvas deck chair, also smiling, wearing
the Lolita heart-shaped sunglasses given to her by Irving Lazar, Nabokov's
Hollywood agent. Regarding the pool, he said during that 1965 walk with
Robert Hughs while passing the swimming pool: “I don’t mind sharing sun
with sunbathers but I dislike immersing myself in a swimming pool. It is
after
all only a big tub where other people join you -- makes one think of those
horrible Japanese communal bathtubs, full of a floating family, or a shoal
of businessmen.” (3)
>>
About twenty minutes from Montreux is the small neighboring town of
Clarens, where Vladimir and Vera Nabokov are buried in the local cemetery.
The simple gray granite tombstone bears an inscription that states the main
thing about Nabokov--that he was the Writer:
>>Vladimir Nabokov
>>Ecrivain 1899-1977
>>Vera Nabokov
>>1902-1991
>>
Blossoming flowers had been planted around the Nabokov's well-kept
grave, and there were several vases of fresh flowers on the grave. Clearly
people had visited the grave just recently. In February 1972, when Vogue
correspondent asked Nabokov whether there was any truth in the rumor that
he was thinking of leaving Montreux forever, Nabokov answered: “Well, there
is
a rumor that sooner or later everybody living now in Montreux will leave it
forever.” (2)
April 23rd, 1999, in Montreux was a clear day, a little windy. A warm
rain had sprinkled in the late afternoon, and then the sun had come out
again for a short while. At that moment I photographed the still-wet Grand
Rue
from my balcony at the Montreux Palace.
In the lobby of the ground floor was the statue of a
knickerbokers-wearing Nabokov that had caused so much gossip. The statue
was the first joint work done by two Moscow sculptors, father and son,
Alexander and Philip Rukavishnikov. Alexander Rukavishnikov is a People's
Artist of
Russia (the highest official honor), an Academician of the Russian Academy
of Arts, a Professor, and the Head of Sculpture Workshop at the prestigious
Surikov Higher Art School. He has sculpted several well-known monuments,
including the monument to Dostoevsky at the Lenin Library in Moscow and a
monument to Tatishchev, the founder of the city of Stavropol on the Volga
(which used to have an Orwellian name of Togliatti, after the late Italian
Communist Party leader Palmiro Togliatti, because Russian knock-off Fiat
was manufactured in this city). Rukavishnikov read all of Nabokov's novels
written in Russian and considered Nabokov a great writer who had returned
the gift of the word to a nation consumed by novoyaz ("new lingo," a mongrel
Russian developed in the Soviet era with many new words to describe new
realities and further "enriched" by the unleashed post-perestroika invasion
of the outside world). Rukavishnikov the younger, who speaks good English,
read many Nabokov works both in Russian and in English and fell in love
with Nabokov's prose as a teenager, when his mother gave him Podvig (Glory).
Father and son decided not to use the expected props of butterflies and the
butterfly net; and as far as the knickerbockers go, wasn't this the garment
that someone who closely evoked Nabokov wore on his return to Russia?
>>
This sculpture, which was going to be placed at the entrance to the
Montreux Palace Hotel, was a gift, but a gift to the town of Montreux
rather then to the hotel, from Moscow and Muscovites, as announced in a
letter
from Yuri Luzhkov, the short powerhouse of a Mayor of Moscow (nicknamed
"Atas," for "Watch Out!"). In his letter, Yuri Luzhkov quoted what is
probably the
best-known Nabokov poem in Russia:
>
“Amazing, though, that at the last indention,
despite proofreaders and my age’s ban,
a Russian branch’s shall be playing
upon the marble of my hand.”
>>
The second part of this prophecy was embodied in bronze in the lobby of
the Montreux Palace -- the first, but I am sure not the last monument to
Nabokov. The Muscovites, though, wanted to go all the way to fulfilling
Nabokov's prophecy. Ludmila Shvetsova, Mayor Luzhkov's representative (she
has now been promoted very high, as I was informed recently) had appeared
at the opening ceremony with a huge basket of "Russian branches" such as
field
flowers and mountain ash berries to cast the appropriate shadow, thus
distracting me from the solemn glory of the unveiling ceremony with a
mundane admiring question: How did she manage to get this Russian ikebana
past the
“plants and produce” control at the Swiss customs?
>>
The Nabokov Celebration was organized by the Montreux Palace Hotel,
which explains its international and ceremonial overtones, noticeably
different
from the intellectual splendors of the New York Town Hall Pen Club Tribute,
or Glenn Horowitz Booksellers party for Vera's Butterflies. The Montreux
Palace ceremony speakers included His Excellency Ambassador Petrovsky, the
Head of the European UN Department, the aforementioned Ludmila Shchvetsova
from the Moscow Mayor Office, the Mayor of Montreux, and other no less
important dignitaries. But this was not the whole story: Philip
Rukavishnikov said clever things about the writer Vladimir Sirin, two very
young ladies from St. Petersburg, a pianist and a violinist, played
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Venyavsky, and after the recital Dmitri
Nabokov unexpectedly and touchingly spoke about his mother. The Nabokovs'
blissful
marriage lasted for 52 years, and it was here, at the Montreux Palace, on
April 15, 1975, that Nabokov drew on a simple sheet of paper a tender
butterfly with half-opened wings and wrote under it: “Here we are at last,
my darling 15.iv.1925--15.iv.1975” (4)
>>
After the official unveiling the hotel invited us in for cocktails.
The festive crowd included the aforementioned officials, rich art patrons,
both
New Russian and Western, publishers, Rukavishnikov's friends, several
requisite well-groomed young beauties, and an occasional Nabokov scholar,
such as Gavriel Shapiro or Lara Delage-Toriel. After that there was a
dinner at the famous hotel restaurant, and then we had Champagne at the bar.
After that the Rukavishnikovs invited us to toast the anniversary in the
rooms
where Nabokov lived for so many years -- the hotel had put the
Rukavishnikovs in the Vladimir Nabokov Chambers. The party was very lively,
everyone
spoke all at once, Philip Rukavishnikov recited poetry. I was trying to
imagine
exactly how these rooms looked when Nabokov lived there.
>>
The hospitable Rukavishnikovs also invited everyone to the Vladimir
Nabokov Chambers the next morning, to say good-bye as Russian custom
requires, with “pososhok” (“one for the road”). I was happy to have a
chance to look out from Nabokov's balcony at the lake and snow-covered
mountains
on the other, French side of the lake. This was the same balcony where
Nabokov was photographed by several excellent photographers, and, though no
longer
young, he looks exquisite in these photos. The morning after the Nabokov
centenary was milky-gray. Fog rested on the snow-covered mountains that
Nabokov used to sketch. It looked like it was going to rain, but I had to
go out because I wanted to see Nabokov's exhibition at the Musee du Vieux
Montreux.
>>
The museum was in an old building in the old part of the town. The
Nabokov exhibition called “Nabokov а Montreux: entre ecriture et
papillions” >>(“Nabokov in Montreux: between writing and butterflies”) was
on several
floors. Visitors were greeted on the first floor by a video of the famous
Nabokov interview with Bernard Pivot for the program "Apostrophes." Nearby
on the wall was a haunting poster for the opera "Lolita" by Rodion
Shchedrin, which was staged at the Royal Swedish Opera. The libretto was in
Swedish,
due to copyright restrictions. The second floor had exhibits related to
VN's life in Montreux: stunning Horst Tappe photographs, VN's standing desk,
furniture from his rooms at the Montreux Palace, Nabokov's books with the
butterfly drawings he inscribed to the people closest to him. Also, there
was a chess board for solving chess problems composed by Nabokov. The
third floor display showed VN's butterfly collections labeled “La collection
Nabokov du Musйe cantonal de zoologie” (Nabokov’s Collection at the Canton
Zoological Museum).
>>
When asked the “Why Montreux?” question Nabokov mentioned one of the
pleasant surprises that Montreux had in store for him: the view of the
lake, “wonderfully soothing and exhilarating according to my mood or mood of
the
lake”(3). Indeed, if you look at the lake from the Montreux Palace
balcony, the lake does surprise you because it can change from moment to
moment. I
brought back several rolls of film with just the view of the lake -- every
time I looked at it, I had the urge to take the camera, and I did, because
every time I thought I would never see such a beautiful light effect again.
>>
Answering the “Montreux” question, Nabokov also mentioned a
metaphorical "easy chair"(3). To understand this term better, I asked
several Americans
to describe "an easy chair," and those who do creative work invariably
agreed with me that it was a comfortable chair for reading and writing in,
not
lazing the days away. Nabokov moved into the Montreux Palace when he was
62.
Many people who are this age decide that this is a good time to retire.
Nabokov, though he mentioned “the pleasant surprise of a metaphorical
sunset in charming surroundings” (5), actually never stopped working and had
big
plans for the future. I think that for understanding the “Nabokov and
Montreux” issue, the view of the ever-changing lake and never-changing
Montreux is not the most important thing. It is probably enough to look at
the “Nabokov” shelf in your bookcase at “Pale Fire” -- he finished this
novel in Montreux, “Ada,” “Speak, Memory,” “Transparent Things,” “Look at
the
Harlequins!” “Lolita” in Russian translated by Nabokov, then the superb
translations that he edited there, such as, for example, “The Gift,” “The
Eye,” “The Defense,” “Despair,” magic Russian stories and, of course,
“Strong Opinions.” Hopefully, the excerpts from “The Original of Laura”
will also
appear on this shelf. Making sure that these books would be on our shelves
was probably the main reason Nabokov lived in Montreux.
>>
NOTES
(1) Perepiska s sestroi (“Correspondence with my sister”), Ardis, Ann Arbor,
1985.
(2) Interview with Susan Morini, Vogue writer, February 3rd, 1972, “Strong
Opinions”
(3) Interview with Robert Hughes , Television 13 , September, 1965, “Strong
Opinions”
(4) Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977, edited by Dmitri Nabokov
and Matthew J. Bruccoli.
(5) Interview with Kurt Hoffman, Bayerischer Rundfunk, October 1971,
“Strong Opinions”