Invitation to a Beheading 170-183
pg. 172 — Turkish delight
A family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar whose place of origin is not definitely determined, but is thought to be the Ottoman Empire. Famous for being the candy for which Edmund betrays his family in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
pg. 176 — Bref
French for “brief” or “short”. In spoken French, it usually means “basically”, “anyway” or “in a nutshell.” Nabokov spoke French (along with English and Russian) from a young age and said “My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian and my ear speaks French.”
pg. 180 — Pritomsk
An imaginary place in an imaginary world. However, like the Russian speaking world it inhabits, Pritomsk sounds Russian (there is a Pritomskii in Russia).
pg. 182 — Elsinore jacket
A sporty jacket, probably named for Helsingør (known as Elsinore in Engllish) in Denmark. This could be another allusion to Hamlet, which is set in Denmark.
pg. 183 — Hippocratic oath
Originated in Ancient Greece between the fifth and third centuries BCE and traditionally attributed to the Greek doctor Hippocrates. A code of ethics taken by physicians in which they swear to uphold specific ethical standards, such as “I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.”
