Stephen Blackwell replies to Sergei Sakoun:
Sergei Sakoun's very interesting and thorough analysis of the
chronological issues in "From the Publisher" deserves to appear in
English, but I can only offer a translation of the abstract he
included in his email, not the entire Word document.
"In the attached document 'chronological problem.doc'
the matter of 'mistaken chronology' in the preface to the 'Belkin
Tales' is considered against the materials of Pushkin's
manuscripts.
"It is shown that if one allows that the letter may have been
written not in a single day, but during a period extending from
24-28 October to 16 November, 1830, (which for such a letter and
for that time is normal), then there is no chronological problem
in it.
"It is noted that Pushkin was writing the preface precisely at
that time. Combining thus one of the proposed dates of Belkin's
death (second anniversary) with the completion of his work on the
book and with its beginning in the preface."
The most salient point to make in reply is that Nabokov was most
likely working with the commentary to the Complete Works (PSS), by
B. V. Tomashevskii, in which he placed the rough draft's composition
on Sept. 14, 1830:
„Повести Белкина“
написаны в с. Болдине осенью 1830 г. и, согласно
датировкам самого Пушкина в рукописях, закончены:
„Гробовщик“ — 9 сентября; „Станционный смотритель“ —
14 сентября; „Барышня-крестьянка“ — 20 сентября, 9
часов вечера; „Выстрел“ — 14 октября; „Мятель“ — 20
октября. Черновой текст „От издателя“ закончен 14
сентября. Впервые напечатаны в ПБ, вышедших в
свет до 31 октября 1831 г. (PSS VIII 1052)
Thus it is highly likely that Nabokov believed that the main work on
the manuscript had been completed well before the dates mentioned in
it. Much more recently, based on paleographic evidence (mostly
color of ink), N.N. Petrunina demonstrated that "From the Publisher"
was composed in late October-early November (Петрунина Н. Н. Когда
Пушкин написал предисловие к "Повестям Белкина" // Временник
Пушкинской комиссии, 1981 / АН СССР. ОЛЯ. Пушкин. комис. — Л.:
Наука. Ленингр. отд-ние, 1985. — С. 31—51.) But Nabokov did not
have this evidence.
I spent some time trying to confirm N. K. Gei's contention that "All
Pushkinists thereafter have wracked their brains over the absurdity
of such dates" (78); so far, the only other reference I've found to
any strangeness is on the Russian Wikipedia site for the Tales.
When our library re-opens, I will look further. It's a key point.
The other key point is that Nabokov's text explicitly names Nov. 16,
and does so in its preface by a fictitious editor, and (as A.
Dolinin noted) Humbert dies on the same day Belkin's friend signed
his letter (and also the day Belkin died, a year earlier, in the
draft). So the connection between Nabokov's novel and Pushkin's text
is pretty secure. Given Nabokov's interest in dates and temporal
strangeness, which we see in his analysis of the dual time in Anna
Karenina, his attraction to what can be (has been) viewed as a
chronological problem in "From the Publisher" would make sense.
There may be some other games with numbers taking place here, as
reported to me off list by a couple of Nabokovians, but I haven't
had time to look into those.
How likely it is that Belkin's friend would have taken three weeks
to write his reply is impossible for me to discern at this point.
It's certainly plausible; is it the most plausible time frame?
Perhaps an expert in 19th-century letter-writing can suggest an
answer.
As an addendum, I should note that Nabokov could have had access to
a source that places the composition of "From the Publisher" on Nov.
16, 1830: the commentary to the complete published letters, released
in 1935:
– Предисловие «От издателя» к «Повестям
Белкина», написанное еще в Болдине 16 ноября 1830 г., было
переписано Пушкиным в начале июля, что видно из его письма 3 июля
(см. выше, стр. 31 и в примечаниях к этому письму, № 436, на стр.
325); послал он его позже, очевидно, при недошедшем до нас письме
к Плетневу. (Т.3, 392) in
Модзалевский
Л. Б. Примечания // Пушкин А. С. Письма /
Под ред. и с примеч. Л. Б. Модзалевского. — М.; Л.: Academia.
Т.
3. Письма, 1831—1833. — 1935.
— С. 119—672.
It's unclear on what basis the editor chose that date--there is no
explanation of its source. The manuscripts themselves are not dated
(see Petrunina, above). It can probably be established whether
Nabokov was looking at this commentary; but even if he was, then he
was faced with two dates of draft completion--Sept. 14 and Nov. 16.
Would he have considered one of them more authoritative? Most likely
Tomshevskii's commentary in the PSS, since that commentary was both
later and explicitly about the text, whereas the commentary to the
letters mention the draft's composition as an aside, and was derived
from earlier or perhaps even anecdotal resources (even though it
turns out to be closer to the truth).
I'm profoundly unqualified to determine whether Pushkin is more
likely to have insisted on Nov. 16 as a latent dedication to E. A.
Karamzina, or as a commemoration of the day he completed his text.
N. K. Gei points out one more detail that appears if the dates are
all taken as referring to November: the 23rd (the day Belkin's
friend received his letter, if it was November) is the Saint's day
of Alexander Nevsky, a date that was occasionally commemorated by
Pushkin. I hope that Pushkinists will be able to settle the
matter.
Stephen Blackwell