Odon (pseudonym of Donald O'Donnell, b. 1915,
world-famous actor and Zemblan patriot) is a character in Pale
Fire. On the other hand, Odon is a character in Gogol's play "Alfred"
(subtitled "The Beginning of a Tragedy from the English History," 1835). NB: in
his note to Line 920 Kinbote mentions two English poets: Alfred Housman
and Alfred Tennyson. One also remembers Alfred Afanasievich Barboshin, a
character (the private detective hired by Troshcheykin) in VN's play "The
Event."
If one looks for Odon's prototypes, the first name that comes
to mind is Mikhail Chekhov (the writer's nephew), the actor and director of
genius who left Soviet Russia in the 1920s. Chekhov famously played
Khlestakov (in Meyerhold's stage version of Gogol's "Inspector," if I'm not
mistaken) and Eric XIV, the mad King of Sweden, in Strindberg's drama.
Btw., a succession of Kings of Sweden who went mad are also mentioned in
Tolstoy's "War and Peace."
Incidentally, in a letter of Jule 13, 1879, to Afanasiy
Afanasievich Fet, Tolstoy mentions the late Vasiliy Botkin: "Всё ломаюсь, мучаюсь, тружусь, исправляюсь, учусь; и думаю, что не
так ли, как Василий Петрович, покойник, доведётся и мне заполнить пробел да и
умереть..." (Tolstoy wonders if one day he, too, fills in the blank in
the proofs and dies, as Botkin did.)
Odon = Nodo (Odon's half-brother) = odno (Russ., "one") =
o + dno (Russ., "bottom;" the Czar Nicolas II abdicated in Dno, in the
Province of Pskov)
Btw., Ganin is the main character in Mary. The
hero in Glory is Martyn Edelweiss.
Alexey Sklyarenko