Subject
charming Monsieur de Pastrouil in Ada
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The challenge was accepted; two native seconds were chosen; the Baron plumped for swords; and after a certain amount of good blood (Polish and Irish - a kind of American 'Gory Mary' in barroom parlance) had bespattered two hairy torsoes, the whitewashed terrace, the flight of steps leading backward to the walled garden in an amusing Douglas d'Artagnan arrangement, the apron of a quite accidental milkmaid, and the shirtsleeves of both seconds, charming Monsieur de Pastrouil and Colonel St Alin, a scoundrel, the latter gentlemen separated the panting combatants, and Skonky died, not 'of his wounds' (as it was viciously rumored) but of a gangrenous afterthought on the part of the least of them, possibly self-inflicted, a sting in the groin, which caused circulatory trouble, notwithstanding quite a few surgical interventions during two or three years of protracted stays at the Aardvark Hospital in Boston - a city where, incidentally, he married in 1869 our friend the Bohemian lady, now keeper of Glass Biota at the local museum. (1.2)
Charming Monsieur de Pastrouil seems to be the Antiterran twin of Louis Pasteur (1822-95), a French chemist and bacteriologist. Pasteur is mentioned in Chekhov's story Palata № 6 (Ward No. 6, 1892):
A radical cure for syphilis had been discovered. And the theory of heredity, hypnotism, the discoveries of Pasteur and of Koch, hygiene based on statistics, and the work of Zemstvo doctors! Psychiatry with its modern classification of mental diseases, methods of diagnosis, and treatment, was a perfect Elborus in comparison with what had been in the past. (chapter VII)
"Colonel St. Alin, a scoundrel," clearly hints at Stalin (1879-1953). Dzhugashvili (Stalin's real name) was born in Gori (Georgia).
"Elborus" mentioned by Chekhov is an old spelling of Elbrus, a mountain in the Caucasus range (the highest peak in Europe).
According to Van, the father of the Erminin twins (who, according to Demon, is "practically mad," 1.38) preferred to pass for a Chekhovian colonel (3.2).
Before the discovery of "a radical cure for syphilis," mercury was used as a remedy. In his farewell letter to Marina Demon wrote:
'Your runaway maid, by the way, has been found by the police in a brothel here and will be shipped to you as soon as she is sufficiently stuffed with mercury.' (1.2)
D'Artagnan is the main character in Alexander Dumas pere's novel The Three Musketeers (1844). In a letter of 18 December 1893 to Suvorin Chekhov informs his friend and publisher that he made an abridged version of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1844-45):
Вы как-то спрашивали в письме насчёт "Графа Монте-Кристо" Дюма. Он давно уже сокращён, так сокращен, бедняга, что покойный Свободин, увидев, ужаснулся и нарисовал карикатуру. Вам привезти сей роман или прислать через магазин?
Chekhov's abridged version was never published. Btw., the novel's hero is a namesake of Pushkin's adversary in his fatal duel.
In a letter of 25 November 1892 to Suvorin Chekhov modestly compares his story Ward No. 6 to lemonade and mentions syphilis:
You are a hard drinker, and I have regaled you with sweet lemonade, and you, after giving the lemonade its due, justly observe that there is no spirit in it. That is just what is lacking in our productions—the alcohol which could intoxicate and subjugate, and you state that very well. Why not? Putting aside "Ward No. 6" and myself, let us discuss the matter in general, for that is more interesting... The causes of this [decline] are not to be found in our stupidity, our lack of talent, or our insolence, as Burenin imagines, but in a disease which for the artist is worse than syphilis or sexual exhaustion. We lack "something," that is true, and that means that, lift the robe of our muse, and you will find within an empty void.
The American 'Gory Mary' of Demon's and d'Onsky's blood hints at Bloody Mary, an alcoholic drink (vodka and tomato juice).
Gory Mary = orgy + army
sifilis + t = Tiflis + si (sifilis - syphilis; Tiflis - old name of Tbilisi, Georgian capital; si - It., yes)
palata + lichinka = Palatka + lichina (an improved anagram; see my previous post)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Charming Monsieur de Pastrouil seems to be the Antiterran twin of Louis Pasteur (1822-95), a French chemist and bacteriologist. Pasteur is mentioned in Chekhov's story Palata № 6 (Ward No. 6, 1892):
A radical cure for syphilis had been discovered. And the theory of heredity, hypnotism, the discoveries of Pasteur and of Koch, hygiene based on statistics, and the work of Zemstvo doctors! Psychiatry with its modern classification of mental diseases, methods of diagnosis, and treatment, was a perfect Elborus in comparison with what had been in the past. (chapter VII)
"Colonel St. Alin, a scoundrel," clearly hints at Stalin (1879-1953). Dzhugashvili (Stalin's real name) was born in Gori (Georgia).
"Elborus" mentioned by Chekhov is an old spelling of Elbrus, a mountain in the Caucasus range (the highest peak in Europe).
According to Van, the father of the Erminin twins (who, according to Demon, is "practically mad," 1.38) preferred to pass for a Chekhovian colonel (3.2).
Before the discovery of "a radical cure for syphilis," mercury was used as a remedy. In his farewell letter to Marina Demon wrote:
'Your runaway maid, by the way, has been found by the police in a brothel here and will be shipped to you as soon as she is sufficiently stuffed with mercury.' (1.2)
D'Artagnan is the main character in Alexander Dumas pere's novel The Three Musketeers (1844). In a letter of 18 December 1893 to Suvorin Chekhov informs his friend and publisher that he made an abridged version of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1844-45):
Вы как-то спрашивали в письме насчёт "Графа Монте-Кристо" Дюма. Он давно уже сокращён, так сокращен, бедняга, что покойный Свободин, увидев, ужаснулся и нарисовал карикатуру. Вам привезти сей роман или прислать через магазин?
Chekhov's abridged version was never published. Btw., the novel's hero is a namesake of Pushkin's adversary in his fatal duel.
In a letter of 25 November 1892 to Suvorin Chekhov modestly compares his story Ward No. 6 to lemonade and mentions syphilis:
You are a hard drinker, and I have regaled you with sweet lemonade, and you, after giving the lemonade its due, justly observe that there is no spirit in it. That is just what is lacking in our productions—the alcohol which could intoxicate and subjugate, and you state that very well. Why not? Putting aside "Ward No. 6" and myself, let us discuss the matter in general, for that is more interesting... The causes of this [decline] are not to be found in our stupidity, our lack of talent, or our insolence, as Burenin imagines, but in a disease which for the artist is worse than syphilis or sexual exhaustion. We lack "something," that is true, and that means that, lift the robe of our muse, and you will find within an empty void.
The American 'Gory Mary' of Demon's and d'Onsky's blood hints at Bloody Mary, an alcoholic drink (vodka and tomato juice).
Gory Mary = orgy + army
sifilis + t = Tiflis + si (sifilis - syphilis; Tiflis - old name of Tbilisi, Georgian capital; si - It., yes)
palata + lichinka = Palatka + lichina (an improved anagram; see my previous post)
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/