Alexey Sklyarenko: From Chekhov's story Pripadok
("A Nervous Breakdown," 1888):But...it would be nice to
touch this man's hair, to see whether it was soft or coarse. It must be coarse
like a dog's.One wonders if this dog-faced flunkey isn't red-haired,
like Red Vaska,* the bouncer in a brothel in a story by Chekhov's friend
Gorky?
JM: I see that it's urgent that I read Ilf &
Petrov's "The Golden Calf" to profit from Alexey Sklyarenko's
associations. Chekhov is, of course, a
dear literary friend but, in spirit, quite distinct from Nabokov
(Van suffered from 'Dackelophobia' and I ignore how fond young Vladimir was
of his parents's Box II - a descendant
of Chekov's dachs?) .
Returning to Red Veen and dogs, through Boyd (cf. afternote ch.11 part I):
"When Dan visits “the other Ardis,” hoping to catch a few sexual crumbs from
Demon’s full table, he ends up bringing together the two parents and two
children who emphasize how his own gullibility has been taken advantage
of..."Why these quiet links between Dan’s 1878 visit to “the other
Ardis,” Dan’s first visit to Ardis in 1884 while Van is there, and Demon’s visit
to Ardis in 1888 while Van is there? The presence of Van and Ada with Demon or
Dan raises the question of the children’s paternity, a question that troubles
Dan, as doubts about whether she is Van’s mother fatally disturb
Aqua"
Brian Boyd is so thorough and his arguments so tightly woven and
illustrated that I often avoid reading them, for fear
of exhausting my readings or loosing the thrill of a discovery (everything
is there in Boyd!) This time, I had to sort out parents and
children all over again:
Red Dan and Marina are 'officially' Ada's and Lucette's parents.Demon and
Aqua are 'officially' Van's parents. Inbreeding may produce
infertility (Van is sterile) but external features, such as gestures
or hair coloring, may easily be shared. Why should these encounters
serve to indicate to Dan that Ada is Demon's, not his own, child? There
must be something wrong with his red hair (or Mary Trumbell's hypothetical
adventures?)
Van's Memoirs bear, in its title, "a family
chronicle" and they also start with a kind of
official genealogical tree. How are its characters
inter-related?
Lucette's,Van's and Ada's shared ancestors
are: Prince Zemsky and Sofia Temnosinyi, who had two children, Peter
and Olga Zemsky.
Peter had only one daughter, Dolly, who married Ivan
Durmanov and had three children, Ivan, Marina and Aqua (Zemsky/Durmanov).
Olga had two boys with Erasmus Veen, Dedalus and
Ardelion Veen *(Zemsky/Veen). Ardelion fathered Daniel
Veen and Dedalus fathered Demon Veen.
Daniel is Demon's cousin (but Demon's child, Van Veen,
calls him "Uncle Dan", probably because Dan
married his "aunt" Marina) Lucette inherited the Veen blood through Erasmus/Ardelion Veen
(but did she?) and the Zemsky/ Durmanov genes through Marina.
Was Ardelion betrayed by Mary Trumbell? In that
case Dan would not carry either Durmanov nor any Veen
blood. Then, Lucette would have inherited only the Zemsky/Durmanov's
share through her mother.
However Dan is often related to a Dutch
inheritance and to Bosch/Erasmus (Veen).
Back to the initial puzzzle. Why is Van's blood dangerous
to his half-sister, the red-haired Lucette?* Unless she was fathered
by another red-haired guy and Mary Trumbell, a faithful wife...Are there
any hints dropped by Van who was very sure of cousinage matters and
genealogy?
........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* "Van was still being suckled by a very young wet nurse, almost a
child, Ruby Black, born Black, who was to go mad too: for no sooner did all the
fond, all the frail, come into close contact with him (as later Lucette did, to
give another example) than they were bound to know anguish and calamity, unless
strengthened by a strain of his father’s demon
blood."
btw: Ruby Black reminds one of red and
dark...