JM: Rack as a Mozart-like figure? Why then Vienna, or
Pushkin's little tragedies, duels and Salieri?
Had Jansy read Pushkin's small tragedies (or
my articles on the subject), she would not have asked these questions. Rack
and Mozart in Pushkin's "Mozart and Salieri" both die of poison. Poison is
also mentioned in "The Covetous Knight." There are many duels in small
tragedies. It is supposed that Pushkin completed "The Stone Guest" on the
morning before his fatal duel (Jan. 27, OS, 1837).
JM: Besides,
whenever Nabokov mentions Wien he is referring to the "Viennese
quack."
I doubt it. Mozart died in Vienna. Besides,
"the Viennese delegation" includes not Freud alone.
Alexey Sklyarenko