Anwyn Urquhart

pg. 84 — L’Intérieur
Translates to Interior and it is a play by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), a Belgian playwright and poet who was heavily influenced by French culture. The play is about an old man and a stranger who find a dead body and are then tasked with how to inform the family of the corpse. It was published in 1894 and originally performed in 1895.

pg. 84 — ascetic
To practice self-restraint against something in order to reach a spiritual goal. Often times it is denying physical pleasures, but not always.

pg. 84 — Blonskaya 
In the book Blonskaya simply seems to be a fictional character. The mention of Blonskaya being an artist might be a nod to Russian artist Seraphima Blonskaya (1870-1947)

pg. 84, 89 — Veronica Chibo
Veronica Chibo is also just a fictional character who is simply mentioned in passing

pg. 85 — Segantini
Refers to Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) an Italian artist. His painting mentioned on page 85 is Love at the Fountain of Life(1896) which depicts an angel watching two lovers in a field. In the book they are discussing the painting because it connects wings with love. "It's lover themselves who ought to have wings, all those who are bold, free, loving" (pg.85)

pg. 85 — Ivan Strannik
Pen-name for Russian writer and journalist Anna Anichkova. Anna Anichkova was born in 1886 in Russia, but began her literary career in France where she started a literary salon. "The Shadow of the House" (1904) is her most well known work. Good friends with Anatole France (see below)

pg. 85 — Anatole France
Pen-name for french novelist Anatole François Thibault (1844-1924). His first success came with a novel called "The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard" (1881) which was more conventional than the novels France became known for. He made a his first big political statement with "The Amethyst Ring" which challenged the French government in the Dreyfus Affair. After that his writing and political beliefs became more intertwined. He became famous for his satirical writing and social awareness. Later in his life he supported the French Communist party, opposed World War I, and won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921.
Anatole France was a friend of Ivan Strannik (Anna Anichkova) and would often visit the literary salon started by Anichkova.

pg. 85 — D’Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938) was an Italian writer and political leader. His best known work is a novel called "The Triumph of Death" (1894), but he is also famously known for flamboyant military actions. He organized a flight over Vienna, Austria during World War I and dropped thousands of leaflets with nationalist propaganda and the Italian flag. Following World War I D'Annunzio occupied and became dictator over Fiume, a port, in protest of the Treaty of Versailles.

pg. 86 — Borgo san Lorenzo
Borgo San Lorenzo is a municipality ~12 miles northeast of Florence.

pg. 86 — Scarperia
Scarperia is also a municipality ~16 miles northeast of Florence.

pg. 86 — Sant-Agata
Sant'Agata is a metropolitian city also northeast of Florence.

pg. 86 — Firenzuola
Firenzuola is a metropolitan city ~25 miles northeast of Florence

pg. 86 — Faenza
Faenza is an Italian city ~31 miles southeast of Bologna

pg. 87 — Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) was an Italian writer well known for his comedies. Considered the founder of realistic comedy, he made comedic characters more relatable, moving away from the masked comedy.
In the book they are comparing L'Intérieur to Goldoni's plays.

pg. 87 — Chianti
Chianiti is a red wine produced in the Chianti region of Tuscany, Italy.

pg. 87 - carabinieri
The carabiniere are the Italian domestic law enforcement group. It is a national police force that was originally formed in the Savoyard states, but became a part of the Italian national force when Italy and the Savoyard states unified in 1861. Carabinieri is a member of this police force.

pg. 88, 89 — Tristan and Isolde
Tristan and Isolde are part of a Celtic legend of romance. Tristan is sent by his uncle King Mark of Cornwall to retrieve Princess Isolde so that Mark and Isolde can marry. On the journey back they Tristan and Isolde drink a love potion that causes them to fall instantly in love. Isolde still marries Mark, but commits adultery with Tristan. The story then has various versions of the ending, but the most well known is Mark finds proof of their crimes and sentences them both to die. Tristan escapes his hanging, by jumping from a chapel. He then saves Isolde from a leper colony that was going to burn her at the stake.
In the scene everyone else is not paying attention to the play with Tristan and Isolde, except for Vanya who is totally consumed by the play. This is a scene where we can see how much Vanya thinks and cares about love. It is also isolating him a little bit from everyone else because he is having this whole crisis about who he loves and his homosexuality, but no one else is.

pg. 88 — Brangäne
Handmaiden and confidante of Isolde in the Legend of Tristan and Isolde. She is also the catalyst for the romance between Tristan and Isolde, having some sort of duty or responsibility over the love potion that Tristan and Isolde end up drinking.

pg. 88 — décolletées
Cleavage or a low neckline that exposes cleavage

pg. 90 — Brittany
Cultural region west of France Mme Monier is traveling there. In some versions of the Tristan and Isolde legend, Tristan moves to Brittany and marries a different woman also named Isolde.

pg. 90 — Gloire de Dijon
A climbing rose