Ada, or Ador: A Family Chronicle

p.362. grustnoe etc.: Russ., she addresses him as ‘my sad bliss’.

p.363. troués: with a hole or holes.

p.363. engripped: from prendre en grippe, to conceive a dislike.

p.364. pravoslavnaya: Russ., Greek-Orthodox.

p.366. das auch noch: Germ., and that too.

p.366. pendant que je etc.: while I am skiing.

p.372. Vesti: Russ., News.

p.375. Obst: Germ., fruit.

p.378. I love you with a brother’s love etc.: see Eugene Onegin, Four: XVI: 3-4.

p.379. cootooriay etc.: mispronunciation of ‘couturier’, dressmaker, ‘vous avez entendu’, you’ve heard (about him).

p.379. tu sais etc.: you know it will kill me.

p.381. Insiste etc.: quotation from St Augustine.

p.381. Henry: Henry James’ style is suggested by the italicized ‘had’.

p.383. en laid et en lard: in an ugly and fleshy version.

p.383. emptovato: Anglo-Russian, rather empty.

p.385. slip: Fr., panties.

p.387. pudeur: modesty, delicacy.

p.388. prosit: Germ., your health.

p.389. Dimanche etc.: Sunday. Lunch on the grass. Everybody stinks. My mother-in-law swallows her dentures. Her little bitch, etc. After which, etc. (see p.375, a painter’s diary Lucette has been reading).

p.389. Nox: Lat., at night.

p.392. Cher ami, etc.: Dear friend, my husband and I, were deeply upset by the frightful news. It was to me — and this I’ll always remember — that practically on the eve of her death the poor girl addressed herself to arrange things on the Tobakoff, which is always crowded and which from now on I’ll never take again, slightly out of superstition and very much out of sympathy for gentle, tender Lucette. I had been so happy to do all I could, as somebody had told me that you would be there too. Actually, she said so herself; she seemed so joyful to spend a few days on the upper deck with her dear cousin! The psychology of suicide is a mystery that no scientist can explain. I have never shed so many tears, it almost makes me drop my pen. We return to Malbrook around mid-August. Yours ever.

p.394. And o’er the summits of the Tacit etc.: parody of four lines in Lermontov’s The Demon (see also p.115).

p.394. le beau ténébreux: wrapt in Byronic gloom.

p.398. que sais-je: what do I know.

p.398. Merci etc.: My infinite thanks.

p.399. cameriere: Ital., hotel manservant who carries the luggage upstairs, vacuum-cleans the rooms, etc.

p.400. libretto: that of the opera Eugene Onegin, a travesty of Pushkin’s poem

p.402. korrektnïy: Russ., correct.

p.402. hobereau: country squire.

p.402. cart de van: Amer., mispronunciation of carte des vins.

p.402. zhidovskaya: Russ. (vulg.), Jewish.

p.403. je veux etc.: I want to get hold of you, my dear.

p.403. enfin: in short.

p.403. Luzon: Amer., mispronunciation of ‘Lausanne’.

p.403. lieu: place.

p.405. (a pause): This and the whole conversation parody Chekhov’s mannerisms.

p.406. muirninochka: Hiberno-Russian caressive term.

p.406. potins de famille: family gossip.

p.407. terriblement etc.: terribly grand and all that, she likes to tease him by saying that a simple farmer like him should not have married the daughter of an actress and an art dealer.

p.407. je dois etc.: I must watch my weight.

p.407. Olorinus: from Lat. olor, swan (Leda’s lover).

p.407. lenclose: distorted ‘clothes’ (influenced by ‘Ninon de Lenclos’), the courtesan in Vere de Vere’s novel mentioned above.

p.408. Aleksey etc.: Vronski and his mistress.

p.409. phrase etc.: stock phrase.

p.409. She Yawns: Chillon’s.

p.409. D’Onsky: see p.17.

p.409. comme etc.: shedding floods of tears.

p.410. N’a pas le verbe etc.: lacks the gift of the gab.

p.411. chiens etc.: dogs not allowed.

p.412. rieuses: black-headed gulls.

p.413. Golos etc.: Russ., The Phoenix Voice, Russian language newspaper in Arizona.

p.413. la voix etc.: the brassy voice telephoned... the trumpet did not sound pleased this morning.

p.413. contretemps: mishap.

p.416. phalène: moth (see also p.111).

p.416. tu sais etc.: you know it will kill me.

p.416. Bozhe moy: Russ., oh, my God.

p.419. et trève etc.: and enough of that painted-ceiling style of mine.

p.422. ardis: arrow.

p.422. ponder: pun on Fr. pondre, to lay an egg (allusion to the problem what came first, egg or hen).

p.424. anime etc.: Lat., soul.

p.424. assassin pun: a pun on pointe assassine (from a poem by Verlaine).

p.424. Lacrimaval: Italo-Swiss. Pseudo-place-name, ‘vale of tears’.

p.426. coup de volant: one twist of the steering wheel.

p.428. dream-delta: allusion to the disintegration of an imaginary element.

p.432. unfortunate thinker: Samuel Alexander, English philosopher.