From: Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@MAIL.RU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tue, March 12, 2013 12:49:20 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Percy de Prey
Percy de Prey was not invited to the picnic party on
Ada's sixteenth birthday. Nevertheless, he arrives "drunk as a
welt":
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, at that
very moment Ada emitted a Russian exclamation of utmost annoyance* as a
steel-gray convertible glided into the glade. No sooner had it stopped than it
was surrounded by the same group of townsmen,** who now seemed to have
multiplied in strange consequence of having shed coats and waistcoats. Thrusting
his way through their circle, with every sign of wrath and contempt, young Percy
de Prey, frilled-shirted and white-trousered, strode up to Marina's deckchair.
He was invited to join the party despite Ada's trying to stop her silly mother
with an admonishing stare and a private small shake of the head. (1.39)
Just before Percy's arrival, Mlle Larivière (the author of
"The Accursed Children") mentions the Tartars: Greg, assuming with touching simplicity that Ada would notice and
approve, showered Mlle Larivière with a thousand little attentions - helping her
out of her mauve jacket, pouring out for her the milk into Lucette's mug from a
thermos bottle, passing the sandwiches, replenishing, replenishing Mlle
Larivière's wineglass and listening with a rapt grin to her diatribes against
the English, whom she said she disliked even more than the Tartars, or the,
well, Assyrians. (Greg Erminin is a Jew, and Mlle Larivière an
antisemite.)
Accoding to a Russian saying, nezvanyi gost' khuzhe
tatarina (the uninvited guest is worse than a Tartar). Chapter VIII of
Pushkin's short novel "The Captain's Daughter" (1836), Nezvanyi
gost' (The Unexpected Visit), has this saying for epigraph. In this
chapter Grinyov visits Pugachyov, the pretender to the Russian throne
who led the Cossack insurrection impersonating the late Emperor Peter III.
As he speaks to Grinyov, Pugachyov mentions another
Pretender, Grishka Otrep'yev:
Пугачёв взглянул на меня быстро. «Так ты не
веришь, — сказал он, — чтоб я был государь Пётр Федорович? Ну, добро. А разве
нет удачи удалому? Разве в старину Гришка Отрепьев не царствовал?
Pugachyov cast at me a quick glance. "You do not then think
that I am the Tsar Peter Fyodorovich? Well, so let it be. Is there no chance of
success for the bold? In former times did not Grischka Otrep'yev reign?"
THE TARTAR.
(Shouts out.) That card was in your sleeve.
THE
BARON.
(Confused.) Would you like me to hide it in your nose?
Nezvanyi gost' (the uninvited guest) in Na dne is
starets (a spiritual adviser) Luka. Luke (Russ., Luka) is the
author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
*presumably, chyort tebya poberi! (the devil take
you!)
**they seem to be the Apostles (their comrade whom
they dispatched and buried must be Judas)
Alexey Sklyarenko
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