Subject
Velvet Veen
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Date
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A tattling tabloid reported, around 1890, that out of gratitude and curiosity 'Velvet' Veen traveled once - and only once - to the nearest floramor with his entire family - and it is also said that Guillaume de Monparnasse indignantly rejected an offer from Hollywood to base a screenplay on that dignified and hilarious excursion. Mere rumours, no doubt. (Ada, 2.3)
'Velvet' Veen is a nephew and heir of David van Veen, a wealthy architect of Flemish extraction who built one hundred floramors in memory of his grandson Eric Veen, the author of an essay 'Villa Venus: an Organized Dream'. Eric Veen's project "derived 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 Merezhkovski's "Peter and Alexey" (Book Six "Tsarevich on the Run", chapter III) Pyotr Andreich Tolstoy is described as "velvet" (barkhatnyi):
Это был всё тот же изящный и превосходительный господин тайный советник и кавалер, Пётр Андреевич Толстой: чёрные бархатные брови, мягкий бархатный взгляд, ласковая бархатная улыбка, вкрадчивый бархатный голос – бархатный весь, а жальце есть.
("black velvet eyebrows, gentle velvet look, affectionate velvet smile, bland velvet voice - velvet all, but has a sting so small")
It is Venus (impersonated by Alexey's mistress Evfrosinia) who helps Tolstoy to lure back home Prince Alexey:
Ну, конечно, кроме св. Николы, помогла и богиня Венус, которую он тоже чтил усердно: не постыдила-таки, вывезла матушка! (ibid., chapter VII)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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'Velvet' Veen is a nephew and heir of David van Veen, a wealthy architect of Flemish extraction who built one hundred floramors in memory of his grandson Eric Veen, the author of an essay 'Villa Venus: an Organized Dream'. Eric Veen's project "derived 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 Merezhkovski's "Peter and Alexey" (Book Six "Tsarevich on the Run", chapter III) Pyotr Andreich Tolstoy is described as "velvet" (barkhatnyi):
Это был всё тот же изящный и превосходительный господин тайный советник и кавалер, Пётр Андреевич Толстой: чёрные бархатные брови, мягкий бархатный взгляд, ласковая бархатная улыбка, вкрадчивый бархатный голос – бархатный весь, а жальце есть.
("black velvet eyebrows, gentle velvet look, affectionate velvet smile, bland velvet voice - velvet all, but has a sting so small")
It is Venus (impersonated by Alexey's mistress Evfrosinia) who helps Tolstoy to lure back home Prince Alexey:
Ну, конечно, кроме св. Николы, помогла и богиня Венус, которую он тоже чтил усердно: не постыдила-таки, вывезла матушка! (ibid., chapter VII)
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/