The children of Demon Veen and Marina Durmanov, Van and Ada (the two main characters in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) are officially maternal cousins and can marry only by special decree:
They walked through a grove and past a grotto.
Ada said: ‘Officially we are maternal cousins, and cousins can marry by special decree, if they promise to sterilize their first five children. But, moreover, the father-in-law of my mother was the brother of your grandfather. Right?’
‘That’s what I’m told,’ said Van serenely.
‘Not sufficiently distant,’ she mused, ‘or is it?’
‘Far enough, fair enough.’
‘Funny — I saw that verse in small violet letters before you put it into orange ones — just one second before you spoke. Spoke, smoke. Like the puff preceding a distant cannon shot.’
‘Physically,’ she continued, ‘we are more like twins than cousins, and twins or even siblings can’t marry, of course, or will be jailed and "altered," if they persevere.’
‘Unless,’ said Van, ‘they are specially decreed cousins.’ (1.24)
When Demon finds out by chance about his children’s affair and tells Van to give up Ada, she marries Andrey Vinelander (an Arizonian cattle-breeder whose fabulous ancestor “discovered our country”). After her husband’s death in 1922 Ada flies over to Van and they spend the rest of their lives together. Ninety-seven-year-old Van and ninety-five-year-old Ada die on the same day (and in the same bed) at the beginning of 1967 (after the last merciful injection of morphine made by Dr Lagosse, their physician). After Van’s and Ada’s death Ronald Oranger (old Van’s secretary, the editor of Ada) marries Violet Knox (old Van’s typist whom Ada calls Fialochka):
Violet Knox [now Mrs Ronald Oranger. Ed.], born in 1940, came to live with us in 1957. She was (and still is — ten years later) an enchanting English blonde with doll eyes, a velvet carnation and a tweed-cupped little rump [.....]; but such designs, alas, could no longer flesh my fancy. She has been responsible for typing out this memoir — the solace of what are, no doubt, my last ten years of existence. A good daughter, an even better sister, and half-sister, she had supported for ten years her mother’s children from two marriages, besides laying aside [something]. I paid her [generously] per month, well realizing the need to ensure unembarrassed silence on the part of a puzzled and dutiful maiden. Ada called her ‘Fialochka’ and allowed herself the luxury of admiring ‘little Violet’ ‘s cameo neck, pink nostrils, and fair pony-tail. Sometimes, at dinner, lingering over the liqueurs, my Ada would consider my typist (a great lover of Koo-Ahn-Trow) with a dreamy gaze, and then, quick-quick, peck at her flushed cheek. The situation might have been considerably more complicated had it arisen twenty years earlier. (5.4)
Nox being Latin for “night,” the name of Van’s typist seems to hint at Blok’s poem Nochnaya Fialka (“The Night Violet,” 1906) subtitled “A Dream.” At the beginning of his "Autobiography" (1915) Alexander Blok tells about his maternal grandfather Andrey Beketov, the celebrated botanist, rector of the St. Petersburg University:
Семья моей матери причастна к литературе и к науке.
Дед мой, Андрей Николаевич Бекетов, ботаник, был ректором Петербургского университета в его лучшие годы (я и родился в "ректорском доме"). Петербургские Высшие женские курсы, называемые "Бестужевскими" (по имени К.Н. Бестужева-Рюмина), обязаны существованием своим главным образом моему деду.
Он принадлежал к тем идеалистам чистой воды, которых наше время уже почти не знает. Собственно, нам уже непонятны своеобразные и часто анекдотические рассказы о таких дворянах-шестидесятниках, как Салтыков-Щедрин или мой дед, об их отношении к императору Александру II, о собраниях Литературного фонда, о борелевских обедах, о хорошем французском и русском языке, об учащейся молодежи конца семидесятых годов. Вся эта эпоха русской истории отошла безвозвратно, пафос ее утрачен, и самый ритм показался бы нам чрезвычайно неторопливым.
В своем сельце Шахматове (Клинского уезда, Московской губернии) дед мой выходил к мужикам на крыльцо, потряхивая носовым платком; совершенно по той же причине, по которой И.С. Тургенев, разговаривая со своими крепостными, смущенно отколупывал кусочки краски от подъезда, обещая отдать все, что ни спросят, лишь бы отвязались.
Встречая знакомого мужика, дед мой брал его за плечо и начинал свою речь словами: "Eh bien, mon petit..." Иногда на том разговор и кончался. Любыми собеседниками были памятные мне отъявленные мошенники и плуты: старый Jacob Fidele, который разграбил у нас половину хозяйственной утвари, и разбойник Федор Куранов (по прозвищу Куран), у которого было, говорят, на душе убийство; лицо у него было всегда сине-багровое - от водки, а иногда - в крови; он погиб в "кулачном бою". Оба были действительно люди умные и очень симпатичные; я, как и дед мой, любил их, и они оба до самой смерти своей чувствовали ко мне симпатию.
Однажды дед мой, видя, что мужик несет из лесу на плече березку, сказал ему: "Ты устал, дай я тебе помогу". При этом ему и в голову не пришло то очевидное обстоятельство, что березка срублена в нашем лесу.
Van and Ada discover that they are brother and sister thanks to Marina's old herbarium found in the attic of Ardis Hall (1.1). Showing to Van Ardis Hall, Ada points out the portrait of her favorite ancestor, Prince Vseslav Zemski, friend of Linnaeus and author of Flora Ladorica:
They went back to the corridor, she tossing her hair, he clearing his throat. Further down, a door of some playroom or nursery stood ajar and stirred to and fro as little Lucette peeped out, one russet knee showing. Then the doorleaf flew open — but she darted inside and away. Cobalt sailing boats adorned the white tiles of a stove, and as her sister and he passed by that open door a toy barrel organ invitingly went into action with a stumbling little minuet. Ada and Van returned to the ground floor — this time all the way down the sumptuous staircase. Of the many ancestors along the wall, she pointed out her favorite, old Prince Vseslav Zemski (1699–1797), friend of Linnaeus and author of Flora Ladorica, who was portrayed in rich oil holding his barely pubescent bride and her blond doll in his satin lap. An enlarged photograph, soberly framed, hung (rather incongruously, Van thought) next to the rose-bud-lover in his embroidered coat. The late Sumerechnikov, American precursor of the Lumière brothers, had taken Ada’s maternal uncle in profile with upcheeked violin, a doomed youth, after his farewell concert. (1.6)
Darkbloom (‘Notes to Ada’): Sumerechnikov: the name is derived from ‘sumerki’ (‘dusk’ in Russian).
In his essay A. A. Blok kak poet (“A. A. Blok as a Poet,” 1921-24) Korney Chukovski points out that sumerki was one of Blok’s favorite words:
Тут был не случайный, а главный эпитет, поглощающий собою остальные. Слово сумрак было его любимейшим словом. А также – сумерки, мгла, тьма. (II)
In his memoir essay Aleksandr Blok kak chelovek (“Alexander Blok as a Person,” 1921) Chukovski says that Blok was the last Russian poet of gentle birth who could adorn his house with the portraits of his grandfathers and great-grandfathers:
Блок был последний поэт-дворянин, последний из русских поэтов, кто мог бы украсить свой дом портретами дедов и прадедов.
On the other hand, Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox seem to hint at Ronald Knox (1888-1957), an English Catholic priest, theologian and author of detective stories. As he talks to Klim Samgin (the main character in Maxim Gorki’s novel “The Life of Klim Samgin,” 1925-36), Berdnikov mentions angliyskie popy (the English priests):
“Даже и меня в это вовлекли, но мне показалось, что попы английские, кроме портвейна, как раз ничего не понимают, а о боге говорят - по должности, приличия ради.”
“I had the impression that the English priests do not know what they are talking about, unless it is port, and speak of God only in the lines of duty, in order to keep decorum." (Part Four)
During the same dinner with Samgin Berdnikov rejects the Bénédictine and demands the Cointreau (orange-flavored liqueur):
Бердников командовал по-французски: - Уберите бенедиктин, дайте куантро... (ibid.)
According to Van, Violet Knox is a great lover of Koo-Ahn-Trow.
In his memoir essay “Gorki” (1940) Korney Chukovski says that, when Blok read his Egyptian play Ramses, Gorki stretched out his arms, like an ancient Egyptian, and remarked that every phrase of Blok’s play should be placed in profile:
Нужно сознаться, что его речи на наших заседаниях часто бывали речами художника, необычными в профессорской среде. Когда Александр Блок прочитал в нашей секции «Исторических картин» свою египетскую пьесу «Рамзес», Горький неожиданно сказал:
— Надо бы немного вот так.
И он вытянул руки вбок, как древний египтянин.
— Надо каждую фразу поставить в профиль!
Блок понимающе кивнул головой. Он понял, что Горькому фразеология «Рамзеса» показалась слишком оторванной от египетской почвы.
Describing his fist visit to Villa Venus, Van mentions three Egyptian squaws dutifully keeping in profile:
Three Egyptian squaws, dutifully keeping in profile (long ebony eye, lovely snub, braided black mane, honey-hued faro frock, thin amber arms, Negro bangles, doughnut earring of gold bisected by a pleat of the mane, Red Indian hairband, ornamental bib), lovingly borrowed by Eric Veen from a reproduction of a Theban fresco (no doubt pretty banal in 1420 B.C.), printed in Germany (Künstlerpostkarte Nr. 6034, says cynical Dr Lagosse), prepared me by means of what parched Eric called ‘exquisite manipulations of certain nerves whose position and power are known only to a few ancient sexologists,’ accompanied by the no less exquisite application of certain ointments, not too specifically mentioned in the pornolore of Eric’s Orientalia, for receiving a scared little virgin, the descendant of an Irish king, as Eric was told in his last dream in Ex, Switzerland, by a master of funerary rather than fornicatory ceremonies. (2.3)
The author of an essay entitled "Villa Venus: an Organized Dream," Eric Veen is a grandson of David van Veen, a wealthy architect of Flemish extraction who built one hundred floramors (palatial brothels) all over the world in memory of his grandson (who died in a hurricane). According to Van, Eric Veen derived his project from reading too many erotic works found in a furnished house his grandfather had bought near Vence from Count Tolstoy, a Russian or Pole. In his essay Dve dushi M. Gor’kogo (“The Two Souls of M. Gorki,” 1923) Chukovski contrasts Gorki’s Detstvo (“Childhood,” 1914), with Tolstoy’s Detstvo (“Childhood,” 1852):
Нет, не похоже «Детство» Горького на «Детство» Толстого! Когда-нибудь для школьных сочинений будет предлагаться в школах тема: сравнительный разбор обоих «Детств» и гимназисты победоносно докажут, что усадебное детство было лучше чумазого. Ведь мимо малолетнего Толстого не возили людей в цепях казнить на ближайшей площади, ведь Толстого не засекали до потери сознания, ведь дом, где жил восьмилетний Толстой, не соседствовал с домом терпимости. Потому Толстой и воскликнул:
— «Счастливая, счастливая, невозвратимая пора детства! Как не любить, не лелеять воспоминаний о ней!»
А мученик чумазой педагогики уже не повторит этих слов. «Точно кожу содрали мне с сердца» — таково было его детское чувство. Ошпаривали сердце кипятком. (I)
In the first part of his autobiographic trilogy, Detstvo, Gorki describes his life in the house of his maternal grandparents in Nizhniy Novgorod. In his memoir essay on Gorki Chukovski quotes the words of Gorki who says in a letter to Chukovski that he is already dedushka (a grandfather):
Да, я уже дедушка, внуку мою зовут Марфа, и, кажется, она будет комической актрисой. А может быть, — художницей, эдак вроде Виже Лебрен, ибо уже и сейчас заинтересована живописью, любит тыкать пальцами в картины и рассказывать о них на неизвестном языке весьма забавные истории. (VI)
Gorki thought that his daughter would be a comedy actress or a painter, like Vigée Lebrun. In his story Pikovaya dama (The Queen of Spades, 1833) Pushkin describes the old Countess's bedroom and mentions two portraits painted in in Paris by Mme Lebrun:
На стене висели два портрета, писанные в Париже Mme Lebrun. Один из них изображал мужчину лет сорока, румяного и полного, в светло-зеленом мундире и со звездою; другой — молодую красавицу с орлиным носом, с зачесанными висками и с розою в пудреных волосах. По всем углам торчали фарфоровые пастушки, столовые часы работы славного Leroy, коробочки, рулетки, веера и разные дамские игрушки, изобретенные в конце минувшего столетия вместе с Монгольфьеровым шаром и Месмеровым магнетизмом. Германн пошёл за ширмы. За ними стояла маленькая железная кровать; справа находилась дверь, ведущая в кабинет; слева, другая — в коридор. Германн её отворил, увидел узкую, витую лестницу, которая вела в комнату бедной воспитанницы... Но он воротился и вошёл в тёмный кабинет.
Two portraits, painted in Paris by Mme. Lebrun, hang on the wall. One of them showed a man about forty years old, red-faced and portly, wearing a light green coat with a star; the other a beautiful young woman with an aquiline nose, with her hair combed back over her temples, and with a rose in her powdered locks. Every nook and corner was crowded with china shepherdesses, table clocks made by the famous Leroy, little boxes, bandalores, fans, and diverse other ladies’ toys invented at the end of the last century, along with Montgolfier’s balloon and Mesmer’s magnetism. Hermann stepped behind the screen. At the back of it stood a little iron bedstead; on the right was the door which led to the cabinet; on the left--the other which led to the corridor. He opened the latter, and saw the little winding staircase which led to the room of the poor companion... But he retraced his steps and entered the dark cabinet. (chapter III)
In VN's story Poseshchenie muzeya ("The Visit to the Museum," 1939) the portrait of the grandfather of the narrator's friend is by Gustave Leroy:
Несколько лет тому назад один мой парижский приятель, человек со странностями, чтобы не сказать более, узнав, что я собираюсь провести два-три дня вблизи Монтизера, попросил меня зайти в тамошний музей, где, по его сведениям, должен был находиться портрет его деда кисти Леруа.
Several years ago a friend of mine in Paris - a person with oddities, to put it mildly - learning that I was going to spend two or three days at Montisert, asked me to drop in at the local museum where there hung, he was told, a portrait of his grandfather by Leroy.
According to Tomski (a character in Pushkin's story), sixty years ago his babushka (grandmother), the old Countess, was known in Paris as la Vénus muscovite:
Надобно знать, что бабушка моя, лет шестьдесят тому назад, ездила в Париж и была там в большой моде. Народ бегал за нею, чтоб увидеть la Vénus moscovite; Ришелье за нею волочился, и бабушка уверяет, что он чуть было не застрелился от её жестокости.
About sixty years ago, my grandmother went to Paris, where she created quite a sensation. People used to run after her to catch a glimpse of the 'Muscovite Venus.' Richelieu courted her, and my grandmother maintains that he almost blew out his brains in consequence of her cruelty. (chapter I)
In his story about his grandmother Tomski mentions Casanova and his Memoirs:
С нею был коротко знаком человек очень замечательный. Вы слышали о графе Сен-Жермене, о котором рассказывают так много чудесного. Вы знаете, что он выдавал себя за вечного жида, за изобретателя жизненного эликсира и философского камня, и прочая. Над ним смеялись, как над шарлатаном, а Казанова в своих Записках говорит, что он был шпион…
She had shortly before become acquainted with a very remarkable man. You have heard of Count St. Germain, about whom so many marvellous stories are told. You know that he represented himself as the Wandering Jew, as the discoverer of the elixir of life, of the philosopher's stone, and so forth. Some laughed at him as a charlatan; and Casanova, in his Memoirs, says that he was a spy. (ibid.)
After the old Countess’ death Hermann (the mad gambler in Pushkin’s story) imagines her long-dead lover whose hair was dressed à l'oiseau royal:
Он спустился вниз по витой лестнице и вошёл опять в спальню графини. Мёртвая старуха сидела окаменев; лицо её выражало глубокое спокойствие. Германн остановился перед нею, долго смотрел на неё, как бы желая удостовериться в ужасной истине; наконец вошёл в кабинет, ощупал за обоями дверь и стал сходить по тёмной лестнице, волнуемый странными чувствованиями. По этой самой лестнице, думал он, может быть, лет шестьдесят назад, в эту самую спальню, в такой же час, в шитом кафтане, причесанный à l’oiseau royal, прижимая к сердцу треугольную свою шляпу, прокрадывался молодой счастливец, давно уже истлевший в могиле, а сердце престарелой его любовницы сегодня перестало биться...
He descended the winding staircase, and once more entered the Countess's bedroom. The dead old lady sat as if petrified; her face expressed profound tranquillity. Hermann stopped before her, and gazed long and earnestly at her, as if he wished to convince himself of the terrible reality; at last he entered the cabinet, felt behind the tapestry for the door, and then began to descend the dark staircase, filled with strange emotions. "Down this very staircase," thought he, "perhaps coming from the very same room, and at this very same hour sixty years ago, there may have glided, in an embroidered coat, with his hair dressed à l'oiseau royal and pressing to his heart his three-cornered hat, some young gallant, who has long been mouldering in the grave, but the heart of his aged mistress has only to-day ceased to beat..." (chapter IV)
Describing the debauch à trois in his Manhattan flat after the dinner in 'Ursus," Van mentions a Casanovanic situation and a bordel's vue d'oiseau:
What we have now is not so much a Casanovanic situation (that double-wencher had a definitely monochromatic pencil - in keeping with the memoirs of his dingy era) as a much earlier canvas, of the Venetian (sensu largo) school, reproduced (in 'Forbidden Masterpieces') expertly enough to stand the scrutiny of a bordel's vue d'oiseau.
Thus seen from above, as if reflected in the ciel mirror that Eric had naively thought up in his Cyprian dreams (actually all is shadowy up there, for the blinds are still drawn, shutting out the gray morning), we have the large island of the bed illumined from our left (Lucette's right) by a lamp burning with a murmuring incandescence on the west-side bedtable. (2.8)
"A Casanovanic situation" and "a definitely monochromatic pencil" bring to mind the situation with Violet Knox whom Ada calls Fialochka (little Violet). According to Van, the situation might have been considerably more complicated had it arisen twenty years earlier. Van does not realize how complicated the situation is (because Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox seem to be Ada's grandchildren).
In “The Two Souls of M. Gorki” Chukovski mentions Gorki's play Deti Solntsa ("Children of the Sun," 1905):
И не смейте служить ничему абсолютному, самоцельному и самоценному, — только человечеству, только его удобствам и пользам! Недаром в своей пьесе «Дети Солнца» Горький так наказывает мудрого героя за то, что тот думал о химии, а не о человеческих нуждах:
— Милая твоя голова много думает о великом, но мало о лучшем из великого — о людях.
Для Горького это непрощаемый грех. (4)
Van, Ada and their half-sister Lucette are the children of Venus:
Knowing how fond his sisters were of Russian fare and Russian floor shows, Van took them Saturday night to ‘Ursus,’ the best Franco-Estotian restaurant in Manhattan Major. Both young ladies wore the very short and open evening gowns that Vass ‘miraged’ that season — in the phrase of that season: Ada, a gauzy black, Lucette, a lustrous cantharid green. Their mouths ‘echoed’ in tone (but not tint) each other’s lipstick; their eyes were made up in a ‘surprised bird-of-paradise’ style that was as fashionable in Los as in Lute. Mixed metaphors and double-talk became all three Veens, the children of Venus. (2.8)
The author of yellow-blue Vass frocks with fashionable rainbow sashes, Vass brings to mind Gorki's play Vassa Zheleznova (1910). In an apologetic note written after the dinner in 'Ursus' and the debauch à trois in his Manhattan flat Van calls Lucette BOP (bird of paradise):
Poor L.
We are sorry you left so soon. We are even sorrier to have inveigled our Esmeralda and mermaid in a naughty prank. That sort of game will never be played again with you, darling firebird. We apollo [apologize]. Remembrance, embers and membranes of beauty make artists and morons lose all self-control. Pilots of tremendous airships and even coarse, smelly coachmen are known to have been driven insane by a pair of green eyes and a copper curl. We wished to admire and amuse you, BOP (bird of paradise). We went too far. I, Van, went too far. We regret that shameful, though basically innocent scene. These are times of emotional stress and reconditioning. Destroy and forget.
Tenderly yours A & V.
(in alphabetic order). (2.8)
“Destroy and forget” (a phrase that occurs in Ada at least three times) seems to hint at oubli ou regret ("oblivion or regret?"), in Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades” a question with which three ladies at a ball approach Tomski (who dances a mazurka with Lizaveta Ivanovna):
Подошедшие к ним три дамы с вопросами — oubli ou regret? — прервали разговор, который становился мучительно любопытен для Лизаветы Ивановны.
Дама, выбранная Томским, была сама княжна ***. Она успела с ним изъясниться, обежав лишний круг и лишний раз повертевшись перед своим стулом.
Three ladies approaching him with the question: "oubli ou regret?" interrupted the conversation, which had become so tantalizingly interesting to Lizaveta Ivanovna.
The lady chosen by Tomski was Princess Polina herself. She succeeded in effecting a reconciliation with him during the numerous turns of the dance, after which he conducted her to her chair. (chapter IV)
Describing the first day of his journey with Lucette onboard Admiral Tobakoff, Van mentions konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse:
To most of the Tobakoff’s first-class passengers the afternoon of June 4, 1901, in the Atlantic, on the meridian of Iceland and the latitude of Ardis, seemed little conducive to open air frolics: the fervor of its cobalt sky kept being cut by glacial gusts, and the wash of an old-fashioned swimming pool rhythmically flushed the green tiles, but Lucette was a hardy girl used to bracing winds no less than to the detestable sun. Spring in Fialta and a torrid May on Minataor, the famous artificial island, had given a nectarine hue to her limbs, which looked lacquered with it when wet, but re-evolved their natural bloom as the breeze dried her skin. With glowing cheekbones and that glint of copper showing from under her tight rubber cap on nape and forehead, she evoked the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon whose magic effect was said to change anemic blond maidens into konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse. (3.5)
Hors is the ancient Slavic god of Sun mentioned in Slovo o polku Igoreve ("The Song of Igor's Campaign").
Van's and Luсette's fellow travelers on Tobakoff include the Robinson couple, Robert and Rachel. In "The Two Souls of M. Gorki" Chukovski mentions Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe:"
И вспомните староанглийские мистерии о том, как Ной сколачивал, смолил и оснащал свой ковчег, или Шиллерову «Песню о колоколе», или Лонгфеллову «Песню о постройке корабля», или знаменитую поэму Оливера Голмса о том, как дьякон построил себе вечную бричку, или рассказ Генри Торо, как у себя в лесу он построил печь, — всюду тот же ненасытный аппетит к деланию новых предметов, вкус к архитекторству и инженерству (который дошел до своего апогея ещё в «Робинзоне Крузо», в начале XVIII века) — и как смеялся над этим величайшим человеческим свойством наш гениальный человек из подполья. (6)
Describing Lucette's suicide, Van mentions Oceanus Nox:
The sky was also heartless and dark, and her body, her head, and particularly those damned thirsty trousers, felt clogged with Oceanus Nox, n,o,x. At every slap and splash of cold wild salt, she heaved with anise-flavored nausea and there was an increasing number, okay, or numbness, in her neck and arms. As she began losing track of herself, she thought it proper to inform a series of receding Lucettes — telling them to pass it on and on in a trick-crystal regression — that what death amounted to was only a more complete assortment of the infinite fractions of solitude. (3.5)
In his poem for children Radost’ (“Joy”) Chukovski mentions apel’siny (oranges) that grow on osiny (aspen trees), vinograd (grapes) that falls from the cloud instead of rain or grad (hailstones), and raduga (rainbow):
Рады, рады, рады
Светлые берёзы,
И на них от радости
Вырастают розы.
Рады, рады, рады
Тёмные осины,
И на них от радости
Растут апельсины.
То не дождь пошёл из облака
И не град,
То посыпался из облака
Виноград.
И вороны над полями
Вдруг запели соловьями.
И ручьи из-под земли
Сладким мёдом потекли.
Куры стали павами,
Лысые - кудрявыми.
Даже мельница - и та
Заплясала у моста.
Так бегите же за мною
На зелёные луга,
Где над синею рекою
Встала радуга-дуга.
Мы на радугу
вска-ра-б-каемся,
Поиграем в облаках
И оттуда вниз по радуге
На салазках, на коньках!
See also the updated version of my post "yellow-blue Vass frocks with fashionable rainbow sashes & crazy spectrum in Ada" (https://thenabokovian.org/node/35714)