Ada, or Ador: A Family Chronicle

p.137. Tolstoy etc.: Tolstoy’s hero, Haji Murad, (a Caucasian chieftain) is blended here with General Murat, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, and with the French revolutionary leader Marat assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday.

p.138. Lute: from ‘Lutèce’, ancient name of Paris.

p.139. constatait etc.: noted with pleasure.

p.140. Shivering aurora, laborious old Chose: a touch of Baudelaire.

p.142. golubyanka: Russ., small blue butterfly.

p.142. petit bleu: Parisian slang for pneumatic post (an express message on blue paper).

p.142. cousin: mosquito.

p.143. mademoiselle etc.: the young lady has a pretty bad pneumonia, I regret to say, Sir.

p.143. Granial Maza: a perfume named after Mt Kazbek’s ‘gran’ almuza’ (diamond’s facet) of Lermontov’s The Demon.

p.145. inquiétante: disturbing.

p.148. Yellow-blue Vass: the phrase is consonant with ya lyublyu vas, (‘I love you’ in Russian).

p.150. mais, ma pauvre amie etc.: but, my poor friend, it was imitation jewellery.

p.151. nichego ne podelaesh’: Russ., nothing to be done.

p.151. elle le mangeait etc.: she devoured him with her eyes.

p.152. petits vers etc.: fugitive poetry and silk worms.

p.153. Uncle Van: allusion to a line in Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya: We shall see the sky swarming with diamonds.

p.157. Les Enfants Maudits: the accursed children.

p.157. du sollst etc.: Germ., you must not listen.

p.157. an ne parle pas etc.: one does not speak like that in front of a dog.

p.158. que voulez-vous dire: what do you mean.

p.160. Forestday: Rack’s pronunciation of ‘Thursday’.

p.160. furchtbar: Germ., dreadful.

p.161. Ero: thus the h-dropping policeman in Wells’ Invisible Man defined the latter’s treacherous friend.

p.163. mais qu’est-ce etc.: but what did your cousin do to you.

p.166. petit-beurre: a tea biscuit.

p.170. unschicklich: Germ., improper (understood as ‘not chic’ by Ada).

p.173. ogon’: Russ., fire.

p.173. Microgalaxies: known on Terra as Les Enfants du Capitaine Grant, by Jules Verne.

p.173. ailleurs: elsewhere.

p.174. alfavit: Russ., alphabet.

p.175. particule: ‘de’ or ‘d’’.

p.176. Pat Rishin: a play on ‘patrician’. One may recall Podgoretz (Russ. ‘underhill’) applying that epithet to a popular critic, would-be expert in Russian as spoken in Minsk and elsewhere. Minsk and Chess also figure in Chapter Six of Speak, Memory (p.133, N.Y. ed. 1966).

p.177. Gerschizhevsky: a Slavist’s name gets mixed here with that of Chizhevki, another Slavist.

p.178. Je ne peux etc.: I can do nothing, but nothing.

p.178. Buchstaben: Germ., letters of the alphabet.

p.178. c’est tout simple: it’s quite simple.

p.179. pas facile: not easy.

p.179. Cendrillon: Cinderella.

p.179. mon petit… qui dis-je: darling… in fact.

p.181. elle est folie etc.: she is insane and evil.

p.181. Beer Tower: pun on ‘Tourbière’.

p.182. chayku: Russ., tea (diminutive).

p.182. Ivanilich: a pouf plays a marvelous part in Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, where it sighs deeply under a friend of the widow’s.

p.182. cousinage: cousinhood is dangerous neighborhood.

p.182. on s’embrassait: kissing went on in every corner.

p.182. erunda: Russ., nonsense.

p.182. hier und da: Germ., here and there.

p.183. raffolait etc.: was crazy about one of his mares.

p.184. tout est bien: everything is all right.

p.184 tant mieux: so much the better.

p.185. Tuzenbakh: Van recites the last words of the unfortunate Baron in Chekhov’s Three Sisters who does not know what to say but feels urged to say something to Irina before going to fight his fatal duel.

p.185. kontretan: Russian mispronunciation of contretemps.

p.187. kameristochka: Russ., young chambermaid.

p.187. en effet: indeed.

p.188. petit nègre: little Negro in the flowering field.

p.188. ce sera etc.: it will be a dinner for four

p.188. Wagging his left forefinger: that gene did not miss his daughter (see p.178, where the name of the cream is also prefigured).

p.188. Lyovka: derogative or folksy diminutive of Lyov (Leo).

p.191. antranou etc.: Russian mispronunciation of Fr. entre nous soit dit, between you and me.

p.191. filius aqua: ‘son of water’, bad pun on filum aquae, the middle way, ‘the thread of the stream’.

p.192. une petite juive etc.: a very aristocratic little Jewess.

p.192. ça va: it goes.

p.192. seins durs: mispronunciation of sans dire ‘without saying’.

p.193. passe encore: may still pass muster.