the
whole clan seems to have been in the liquor business(...).
The maternal uncle "Tselovalnikov" also apparently had roots in the liquor
business since his name is an old word meaning "one who sells "drinks in a
tavern" (and, also a tax collector)".
I wonder if these names ( Vinogradus/Tselovalnikov) represent a
mixture of real ( historic) and fictional names, as it happens in "Ada".
In BBoyd´s “Nabokov´s Ada: The Place of Consciousness” (283/4)
Boyd describea the process by which the interchanged places between Prince
N. and Baron d´O mingled “reality” and
fantasy.
In Pale Fire we find "Vinograd/Gradus" and,
although in Ada there is a "Vinelander" , instead of
liquor, we have another connection, this one with tobacco.
We
find, in "Ada", two fictional explorers “of the Americas”: the Tobakoffs and the
Vinelanders, and yet the name Vinelander is familiar to historians in a way
that Tobakoff's is not.
The
latter is also mentioned in close proximity to a
certain Nicot. Tobak is the fictional hero whereas we can learn about Jean
Nicot and his life ( C.Kunin called my attention to Jean Nicot some
time ago).
The game of exchanges between reality and
fiction apparently goes on and is enhanced by the
link present in the sounds of “Nicot” (nicotine) and “Tobak”
(tobacco).
Jansy