Subject
Griboedov & Kaverin in LATH
From
Date
Body
Vadim compares his mental flaw to a missing pinkie. (2.7)
Griboedov's dead body was identified because the little finger of his left hand was maimed in his duel (the famous "Duel of the Four") with Yakubovich:
Sheremetev's death [in his duel with Zavadovski] delayed the Yakubovich-Griboedov meeting; it took place a year later (Oct. 23, 1818) in Tiflis; the great marksman, knowing how much the great writer liked to play the piano, neatly wounded him in the palm of the left hand, crippling the fifth digit; it did not prevent Griboedov from going on with his musical improvising, but some ten years later this contracted finger provided the sole means of identifying his body, horribly mutilated by a Persian mob in an anti-Russian riot at Teheran, where he was envoy. (EO Commentary, II, p. 89)
According to Vadim, his father died in a pistol duel with a young Frenchman on October 22, 1898. (2.5)
One of the seconds in the Zavadovski-Sheremetev duel (on the Volkovo Field in the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Nov. 12, 1817) was Onegin's friend Kaverin. When Sheremetev, mortally wounded and in agony, "flapped and plunged all over the snow like a large fish," Kaverin came to him and said: "Vot tebe i repka [Well, that's the end of your little turnip]" (EO Commentary, ibid.)
Kaverin is mentioned in LATH: Was that really I, Prince Vadim Blonsky, who in 1815 could have outdrunk Pushkin's mentor, Kaverin? (6.2)
The list of Vadim's novels includes Dr. Olga Repnin (1946). The name Repnin comes from repa (turnip).
The society nickname of Vadim's father (who was portrayed by Vrubel) was Demon. (2.5). In Blok's poem Vozmedie (Retribution, 1910-21) the hero's father (who is devastated by Demon over whom Vrubel has eshausted) is known as Demon.
Его опустошает Демон,
Над коим Врубель изнемог...
Его прозрения глубоки,
Но их глушит ночная тьма,
И в снах холодных и жестоких
Он видит "Горе от ума".
And in his cold and cruel dreams
he [Demon] sees Woe from Wit. (Retribution, Chapter Three)
Gore ot uma (Woe from Wit, 1824) is a comedy in verse ("the only great Russian comedy in verse") by Griboedov.
Alexey Sklyarenko
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Griboedov's dead body was identified because the little finger of his left hand was maimed in his duel (the famous "Duel of the Four") with Yakubovich:
Sheremetev's death [in his duel with Zavadovski] delayed the Yakubovich-Griboedov meeting; it took place a year later (Oct. 23, 1818) in Tiflis; the great marksman, knowing how much the great writer liked to play the piano, neatly wounded him in the palm of the left hand, crippling the fifth digit; it did not prevent Griboedov from going on with his musical improvising, but some ten years later this contracted finger provided the sole means of identifying his body, horribly mutilated by a Persian mob in an anti-Russian riot at Teheran, where he was envoy. (EO Commentary, II, p. 89)
According to Vadim, his father died in a pistol duel with a young Frenchman on October 22, 1898. (2.5)
One of the seconds in the Zavadovski-Sheremetev duel (on the Volkovo Field in the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Nov. 12, 1817) was Onegin's friend Kaverin. When Sheremetev, mortally wounded and in agony, "flapped and plunged all over the snow like a large fish," Kaverin came to him and said: "Vot tebe i repka [Well, that's the end of your little turnip]" (EO Commentary, ibid.)
Kaverin is mentioned in LATH: Was that really I, Prince Vadim Blonsky, who in 1815 could have outdrunk Pushkin's mentor, Kaverin? (6.2)
The list of Vadim's novels includes Dr. Olga Repnin (1946). The name Repnin comes from repa (turnip).
The society nickname of Vadim's father (who was portrayed by Vrubel) was Demon. (2.5). In Blok's poem Vozmedie (Retribution, 1910-21) the hero's father (who is devastated by Demon over whom Vrubel has eshausted) is known as Demon.
Его опустошает Демон,
Над коим Врубель изнемог...
Его прозрения глубоки,
Но их глушит ночная тьма,
И в снах холодных и жестоких
Он видит "Горе от ума".
And in his cold and cruel dreams
he [Demon] sees Woe from Wit. (Retribution, Chapter Three)
Gore ot uma (Woe from Wit, 1824) is a comedy in verse ("the only great Russian comedy in verse") by Griboedov.
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/