Invitation to a Beheading 106-121
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Vladimir Nabokov
plain
2020-10-06T12:19:50-04:00
pg. 110 — Upper Elderbury/Elderburian/“elderburies”
In Russian, the name of M'sieur Pierre's home city is "Vyshnegrad." "Elderburies" becomes "vyshni," which is a pun on "vishni," cherries. The reference to cherries as well as the mention of a fruit orchard in the same paragraph is thought to allude to Chekhov's 1904 play "The Cherry Orchard." M'sieur Pierre is named after a character from the play (Sklyarenko, 2019).
pg. 118 — seven-veil dance
This is a reference to a retelling of a biblical story as a one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), titled Salomé. Though written in 1891, due to laws against depicting biblical characters in plays, it was first published as a book and not performed until 1896. The titular character performs the dance of the seven veils in exchange for the decapitation of the person who spurned her romantic advances. It is thought that this line in Invitation to a Beheading marks M’sieur Pierre and Emmie, who seems to parallel Salome, as allies.
