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[NABOKOV-L] A dead end: Dr. Sutton in Pale Fire
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ADA: "During the last week of July, there emerged, with diabolical regularity, the female of Chateaubriand's mosquito, Chateaubriand (Charles)...was not related to the great poet and memoirist born between Paris and Tagne (as he'd better, said Ada, who liked crossing orchids)....scraping with one's claws or nails the spots visited by that fluffy-footed insect characterized by an insatiable and reckless appetite for Ada's and Ardelia's, Lucette's and Lucile's (multiplied by the itch) blood."
Pale Fire: CK's note to line 119: Dr. Sutton: " This is a recombination of letters taken from two names, one beginning in "Sut," the other ending in "ton." Two distinguished medical men, long retired from practice, dwelt on our hill. Both were very old friends of the Shades; one had a daughter, president of Sybil's club - and this is the Dr. Sutton I visualize in my notes to lines 181 and 1000. He is also mentioned in Line 986."
Brian Boyd's book on Pale Fire doesn't include the name of Chateaubriand in the Index. His annotations, in "Nabokov's Ada,The Place of Consciousness" about the French diplomat, poet and memoirist, though, are delightful and extensive: On Ardis/Ada/Ardelia (p.127) we find allusions to Chateaubriand, links between Aline,Helene, Lucette and refers to Darkbloom's note that Lucile is "the name of Chateaubriand's actual sister." Boyd concludes the chapter saying that "The Chateaubriand allusions, then, occur where Lucette is also present, and especially where there is a confusion between her and Ada that reflects her long entanglement in Van and Ada's lives." On p.215 he returns to a confusion between Ada and Lucette, when he brings a reference to Pale Fire: "The translation of John Shade's poem is even more insistently focussed on Lucette" to inquire: "What is one to make of these oblique but insisten reminders of Lucette in Pt.5 Ch,4 and the hints that she has some special relationship to Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox?"..."What seems to be suggested here is that Lucette, somehow acting through the agency of Violet Knox and Ronald Oranger, has encouraged Van to write Ada and has acted througout as a source of inspiration." On p.272: "Ada's playful allusions to Chateaubriand appear to make like of the whole subject of incest but good readers will recall...that Chateaubriand's beloved sister Lucile is..." On p.301:"Mlle Larivière's uninteninally comic Les Enfants Maudits, which echoes both Chateaubriand's Mémoires and his René..." and, as in p.313, references to other works by Chateaubriand*. There are various elucidations at the end of his book related to Lucile's death and Chateaubriand's Lucile's putative suicide.
While reading G.S.Sebald's reference to Chateaubriand ("The Rings of Saturn"), describing his courtship to a vicar's 15 year-old daughter, called Charlotte Yves, he referred to the memoirist's description of his re-encounter with Charlotte some twenty-years later. At that time her married name was Madame Sutton.** In "Pale Fire" we find no "Atala" (but "Atalanta") although there is, in fact, a Dr. Sutton. If we believe in Kinbote's testimony, Dr. Sutton is actually two different doctors with the same name, both living in the same hill as Goldsworth and Shade. However, there's no indication of a British Admiral Sutton: it's almost certain that there's no reference to Chateaubriand in "Pale Fire" (only the other way around, as pointed out by Brian Boyd in connection to "Ada", to Lucile's suicide and her ghostly influence over Van). Athough I'm unfit to engage in a wild-goose chase, I think that this item was peculiar enough to warrant its mention in the Nab-List.
.........................................................................................................................................
* -"Atala," together with "René," were published as part of "Le Génie du Christianisme."
** - wiki: Born in Saint-Malo, the last of ten children, Chateaubriand grew up in his family's castle in Combourg, Brittany. His father, René de Chateaubriand (1718-86), was a former sea captain turned ship owner and slave trader....the young Chateaubriand grew up in an atmosphere of gloomy solitude, only broken by long walks in the Breton countryside and an intense friendship with his sister Lucile. Chateaubriand was educated in Dol, Rennes and Dinan. For a time he could not make up his mind whether he wanted to be a naval officer or a priest...When the French Revolution broke out, Chateaubriand was initially sympathetic, but as events in Paris became more violent he decided to journey to North America in 1791. This experience would provide the setting for his exotic novels Les Natchez (written between 1793 and 1799 but published only in 1826), Atala (1801) and René (1802)...Chateaubriand returned to France in 1792 and subsequently joined the army of Royalist émigrés in Coblenz...Under strong pressure from his family, he married a young aristocratic woman, also from Saint-Malo, whom he had never previously met, Céleste Buisson de la Vigne...he was wounded at the siege of Thionville, a major clash between Royalist troops and the French Revolutionary Army. Half-dead, he was taken to Jersey and exile in England, leaving his wife behind.Chateaubriand spent most of his exile in extreme poverty in London, scraping a living offering French lessons and doing translation work, but a stay in Suffolk was more idyllic. Here Chateaubriand fell in love with a young English woman, Charlotte Ives, but the romance ended when he was forced to reveal he was already married. During his time in Britain, Chateaubriand also became familiar with English literature. This reading, particularly of John Milton's Paradise Lost (which he later translated into French prose), would have a deep influence on his own literary work. His exile forced Chateaubriand to examine the causes of the French Revolution, which had cost the lives of many of his family and friends; these reflections inspired his first work, Essai sur les Révolutions (1797)...
"In 1794 Chateaubriand, a penniless émigré calling himself M. de Combourg, taught French to the young ladies of the district, including Charlotte Ives, a vicar's daughter. Injured in a fall from his horse, he was carried into Bridge House (plaque) and cared for by the Ives family. He fell in love with the 15-year-old Charlotte and Mrs Ives suggested they should marry and make their home at the vicarage. His confession that he was already married broke the idyll: Mrs Ives fainted and M. de Combourg left the house. He and Charlotte met once more. In 1822 Charlotte, by now Mrs Sutton, sought an audience with Chateaubriand, then French Ambassador in London, to ask a favour for her elder son." Cf. "http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/12240/Bungay-Suffolk.html">Bungay Suffolk - Suffolk.".
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Pale Fire: CK's note to line 119: Dr. Sutton: " This is a recombination of letters taken from two names, one beginning in "Sut," the other ending in "ton." Two distinguished medical men, long retired from practice, dwelt on our hill. Both were very old friends of the Shades; one had a daughter, president of Sybil's club - and this is the Dr. Sutton I visualize in my notes to lines 181 and 1000. He is also mentioned in Line 986."
Brian Boyd's book on Pale Fire doesn't include the name of Chateaubriand in the Index. His annotations, in "Nabokov's Ada,The Place of Consciousness" about the French diplomat, poet and memoirist, though, are delightful and extensive: On Ardis/Ada/Ardelia (p.127) we find allusions to Chateaubriand, links between Aline,Helene, Lucette and refers to Darkbloom's note that Lucile is "the name of Chateaubriand's actual sister." Boyd concludes the chapter saying that "The Chateaubriand allusions, then, occur where Lucette is also present, and especially where there is a confusion between her and Ada that reflects her long entanglement in Van and Ada's lives." On p.215 he returns to a confusion between Ada and Lucette, when he brings a reference to Pale Fire: "The translation of John Shade's poem is even more insistently focussed on Lucette" to inquire: "What is one to make of these oblique but insisten reminders of Lucette in Pt.5 Ch,4 and the hints that she has some special relationship to Ronald Oranger and Violet Knox?"..."What seems to be suggested here is that Lucette, somehow acting through the agency of Violet Knox and Ronald Oranger, has encouraged Van to write Ada and has acted througout as a source of inspiration." On p.272: "Ada's playful allusions to Chateaubriand appear to make like of the whole subject of incest but good readers will recall...that Chateaubriand's beloved sister Lucile is..." On p.301:"Mlle Larivière's uninteninally comic Les Enfants Maudits, which echoes both Chateaubriand's Mémoires and his René..." and, as in p.313, references to other works by Chateaubriand*. There are various elucidations at the end of his book related to Lucile's death and Chateaubriand's Lucile's putative suicide.
While reading G.S.Sebald's reference to Chateaubriand ("The Rings of Saturn"), describing his courtship to a vicar's 15 year-old daughter, called Charlotte Yves, he referred to the memoirist's description of his re-encounter with Charlotte some twenty-years later. At that time her married name was Madame Sutton.** In "Pale Fire" we find no "Atala" (but "Atalanta") although there is, in fact, a Dr. Sutton. If we believe in Kinbote's testimony, Dr. Sutton is actually two different doctors with the same name, both living in the same hill as Goldsworth and Shade. However, there's no indication of a British Admiral Sutton: it's almost certain that there's no reference to Chateaubriand in "Pale Fire" (only the other way around, as pointed out by Brian Boyd in connection to "Ada", to Lucile's suicide and her ghostly influence over Van). Athough I'm unfit to engage in a wild-goose chase, I think that this item was peculiar enough to warrant its mention in the Nab-List.
.........................................................................................................................................
* -"Atala," together with "René," were published as part of "Le Génie du Christianisme."
** - wiki: Born in Saint-Malo, the last of ten children, Chateaubriand grew up in his family's castle in Combourg, Brittany. His father, René de Chateaubriand (1718-86), was a former sea captain turned ship owner and slave trader....the young Chateaubriand grew up in an atmosphere of gloomy solitude, only broken by long walks in the Breton countryside and an intense friendship with his sister Lucile. Chateaubriand was educated in Dol, Rennes and Dinan. For a time he could not make up his mind whether he wanted to be a naval officer or a priest...When the French Revolution broke out, Chateaubriand was initially sympathetic, but as events in Paris became more violent he decided to journey to North America in 1791. This experience would provide the setting for his exotic novels Les Natchez (written between 1793 and 1799 but published only in 1826), Atala (1801) and René (1802)...Chateaubriand returned to France in 1792 and subsequently joined the army of Royalist émigrés in Coblenz...Under strong pressure from his family, he married a young aristocratic woman, also from Saint-Malo, whom he had never previously met, Céleste Buisson de la Vigne...he was wounded at the siege of Thionville, a major clash between Royalist troops and the French Revolutionary Army. Half-dead, he was taken to Jersey and exile in England, leaving his wife behind.Chateaubriand spent most of his exile in extreme poverty in London, scraping a living offering French lessons and doing translation work, but a stay in Suffolk was more idyllic. Here Chateaubriand fell in love with a young English woman, Charlotte Ives, but the romance ended when he was forced to reveal he was already married. During his time in Britain, Chateaubriand also became familiar with English literature. This reading, particularly of John Milton's Paradise Lost (which he later translated into French prose), would have a deep influence on his own literary work. His exile forced Chateaubriand to examine the causes of the French Revolution, which had cost the lives of many of his family and friends; these reflections inspired his first work, Essai sur les Révolutions (1797)...
"In 1794 Chateaubriand, a penniless émigré calling himself M. de Combourg, taught French to the young ladies of the district, including Charlotte Ives, a vicar's daughter. Injured in a fall from his horse, he was carried into Bridge House (plaque) and cared for by the Ives family. He fell in love with the 15-year-old Charlotte and Mrs Ives suggested they should marry and make their home at the vicarage. His confession that he was already married broke the idyll: Mrs Ives fainted and M. de Combourg left the house. He and Charlotte met once more. In 1822 Charlotte, by now Mrs Sutton, sought an audience with Chateaubriand, then French Ambassador in London, to ask a favour for her elder son." Cf. "http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/12240/Bungay-Suffolk.html">Bungay Suffolk - Suffolk.".
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/