C

 

Cadet Corps: The Cadet Corps was an military middle school for boys, established in Russia in 1732, and later abolished by the Bolshevik government. “[F]or several months during 1854 [Chernyshevski] t[eaches] in the Second Cadet Corps.” It is at the cadet school that “the theme of ‘officers’” begins, or where Chernyshevski stops an officer from entering his classroom (G233).

 

Calabrian: a characteristic of the people from Calabria, which is a region in southern Italy, occupying the "toe" region of the "boot". The region has a population of 2 million people. (G222)

 

Calcium Lamp: Simple lamps that produce and burn acetylene which is created by the reaction of calcium carbide with water. They were used in mines after 1892 as well as to illuminate buildings, as lighthouse beacons and as headlights on cars and bicycles. They are still used today by cavers, hunters and cavaphiles. The acetylene producing reaction is exothermic, which means that the lamp's reactor vessel is warm to the touch. Fyodor's father used this lamp to attract and kill moths.

("Father has climbed a rock looking for a place to suit his calcium lamp for catching moths.") (G119)

 Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carbide_lamp_lit.jpg

 

Cambridge: Konstantin Kirillovich Godunov-Cherdyntsev studied biology under Professor Bright at the University of Cambridge (G102).

 

Camera Obscura: Literally meaning 'dark chamber,' the term is used to designate a camera-like instrument where light comes through a small hole into a dark box, then projects external images as inverted onto the side of the box that faces the hole. The Camera Obscura is a famous analogy for the nature of ideological perception in Karl Marx's The German Ideology. (Marx is generally considered the founder of communism and heavily influenced the leaders of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin). Also, Nabokov's novel Камера Обскура (1932) was translated into English as Camera Obscura (1936), and, later, as Laughter in the Dark (1938) (G338).

 

Canal Quay: A reference to the Catherine Canal, near which Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 (G226).

 

Captain’s Daughter, The : A novella by Pushkin published in 1836. The story follows a young nobleman, Grinev, who is sent to serve in the army. When he arrives at the fort he falls in love with Captain Mironov’s daughter Maria. However, she is already being courted by another officer, Schvabrin, and the two young men become nemeses. Fyodor’s mother references this story in a letter to Fyodor (G105).

 

Carlsbad: A town in the district of Karlsrohe in Germany. Zina mentions the town to Fyodor when attempting an imitation of Lishnevski (G193).

 

Catocalid: Genus of common woodland moth (G95).

 

Image Source: http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/JP/JP46.1.shtml

 

Cavour: Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour (1810-1861) was a prominent figure in the movement towards a unified Italy. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and was ruler during Second Italian War of Independence and Garibaldi’s campaigns. In The Gift, he is mentioned in the same context as Garibaldi (G264).

 

Centaury: Centaury is the name given to plants that belong to the genus Centaurium, of the Gentian family, sometimes used to cure conventional stomach ailments.  The genus derives its name from the centaur of Greek myth, Chiron, because of his adeptness with medicinal plants.  Fyodor reports that Chernyshevski, among other types of cures, “treat[s] himself” with “centaury with bitter-orange leaves,” (see bitter orange) “employed” “with a kind of odd gusto” in an otherwise unspecified ancient “Roman method” (G227).

 

Cervantes: Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) is one of the most important figures in literature and the leading figure associated with the cultural florescence of sixteenth century Spain (the Siglo de Oro). His novel, Don Quixote, is considered a founding classic of Western literature and regularly figures among the best novels ever written. Critical discussion of the work has unabatedly persisted since the 18th century. In The Gift, Belinski states that “not only Cervantes, Walter Scott and Cooper, as artists pre-eminently, but also Swift, Sterne, Voltaire and Rousseau have an incomparably and immeasurably greater significance in the whole history of literature than Gogol.” Nabokov closely studied Don Quixote during his tenure at Cornell University (G254).

 

Cicero: Marcus Tullius Cicero (January 3, 106 B.C. – December 7, 43 B.C.) was one of Rome's greatest orators and recognized today for his philosophic and politcal thought (G247).

 

Chang: Ancient capital city of China for more than ten dynasties. Fyodor imagines being in Chang with Father in Chapter Two (G122). During the Ming Dynasty, the city’s name was changed to Xi’an and it still retains this name.

 

Chang Tso-Lin: (1873 - June 4, 1928) Zhāng Zuòlín, nicknamed the "Old Marshal," "Rain Marshal," and "Mukden Tiger", was one of the major warlords of China in the early 20th century. He was the warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to 1928, and at one time ruled an enormous area of north China (G50).

Image Source: http://scaa.usask.ca/gallery/gruen/postcards/Foreigners/Foreigners3.html

 

Chaplin, Charlie: (April 16, 1889- December 25, 1977) British film actor, considered one of the greatest silent comedy actors in history. Chaplin was also an accomplished director, writer and composer (G314).

 

Cigarette trading card (1926) as it might have been seen by Godunov-Cherdyntsev.

 

Charlottenburg: an area of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Charlottenburg was an independent city to the west of Berlin until it was incorporated into "Groß-Berlin" (Greater Berlin) in 1920 and transformed into a borough.

 

Charon: In Greek mythology, Charon (fierce brightness) was the ferryman of Hades. He took the newly dead from one side of the river Acheron to the other if they had a coin to pay for the ride. Corpses in ancient Greece were always buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay Charon. According to legend, those who could not pay had to wander the banks of the Acheron for one hundred years (G64, 75).

 

Charski: Chernyshevski's lawyer (G312, 363).

 

Cheka: Dubbed the first "Russian Secret Police", the Cheka were created by Lenin in 1917 (G230).

 

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich (1860-1904): A short story writer and playwright, Chekhov is important in the development of the short story and an early example of Stream of Consciousness literary technique. He also was a physician, which Alexandra Yakovlevna picks up on when she says that “Chekhov didn’t leave the slightest trace in medicine” in part II at a party Fyodor and Zina attend (G198).

 

Chernyshevski: see Chernyshevski, Nikolai Gavrilovich.

 

Chernyshevski, Aleksandr (‘Sasha’) Nikolaevich: (1854-1914, according to The Gift (see G235 and G296)) Nikolay Chernyshevski’s eldest son, raised by the Pypin sisters and Aleksandr Pypin (see Pypin, Aleksandr Nikolaevich).  Aleksandr Herzen (see Herzen, Aleksandr Ivanovich) also had a son named (Aleksandr) ‘Sasha’ (1839-1906)—this plays into the close comparison between the senior Herzen and the senior Chernyshevski, both historical and perpetrated by Chernyshevski in The Gift (for example, see The Diary of my Relations with Her who now Constitutes my Happiness).  Olga Sokratovna becomes “disenchanted with little Sasha” soon after his birth (G235), much as Chernyshevski himself comes to disdain the grown Sasha for reasons that analogize Sasha to Fyodor’s character (see G296-99; Sasha’s re-introduction into the biography occurs with “Of all the madmen who tore Chernyshevski’s life into shreds, the worst was his son  . . .” (G296)).  Sasha’s “mental disease” (G296) and his fear of “slipping into a different dimension” (G297) recall aspects of Nabokov’s short story, “Signs and Symbols.”  Sasha also publishes “a collection of futile poems” and something called “Fantastic Tales” (G296).  By ironic comparison with the latter work, Nikolay Chernyshevski is impressed by “The Academy of Azure Mountains” (see Empedocles) (G296) (G235).

 

 

 

Photograph, undated. Image courtesy: Yuri Leving.

 

Chernyshevski, Alexandr Yakovlevich: Husband to Alexandra Yakovlevna Chernyshevski and father to Yasha (G8, 35, 208).

 

Chernyshevski, Alexandra Yakovlevna: Wife to Alexander Yakovlevich Chernyshevski and mother to Yasha. Encourages Godunov-Cherdynstsev to write the biography of Yasha. (G5, 32-40, 207,208). Mme Chernyshevski also helps Fyodor find lodging with the Shchyogolev family at 15 Agamemnon Strasse, by calling Tamara Grigorievna, the room's previous lodger (G139, 337).

 

Chernyshevski, Gavriil: Priest in the Saratov seminary, father of Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevski. (G212, 213).

 

Chernyshevski, Mi[k]hail (‘Misha’) Nikolaevich: (1858-1924, according to The Gift (see G235 and G296)) Nikolay Chernyshevski’s third son.  As with her second pregnancy (see Chernyshevski, Victor Nikolaevich), Olga Sokratovna “again almost died.”  Misha and the string of Chernyshevski births he concludes mark a period of “Amazing times—heroic, prolific” (G235).  This concurs with the favourable description of him as having “evolved from his father’s ‘positive number’”: as an adult, Misha “lovingly work[ed] away at tariff questions” and was preparing a “monumental edition of his late father’s works . . . when he died” (G296).  Misha is heavily contrasted with Chernyshevski’s and Olga Sokratovna’s first son, Sasha, at G296-97 (see Chernyshevski, Aleksandr (‘Sasha’) Nikolaevich) (G235). 

 

 

Photograph, 1866. Image courtesy: Yuri Leving.

 

Chernyshevski, Nikolai Gavrilovich: N.G. Chernyshevski (1828-1889) was a Russian radical journalist, writer, socialist and literary critic. He was a proponent of Narodism, Russian populism, and agitated for the revolutionary overthrow of the autocracy and the creation of a socialist society. Much of his ideas were further influenced by: Vissarion Belinksy, Alexander Herzen and Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach. Due to the subversive nature of his ideas at the time, and allegations of being affiliated with revolutionary organizations, he was imprisoned in the St.Peter& Paul Fortress, and then later exiled for life in Siberia (G212-237). Supposedly, his Father baptised Alexander Chernishevski's grandfather during the reign of Nicholas I, thus bestowing this name unto their family (G40). Fyodor writes a critical biography of Chernyshevski (G364).

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Chernyshevsky

 

Chernyshevski, Olga Sokratovna: See Olga Sokratovna.  

 

Chernyshevski, Victor Nikolaevich: Nikolay Chernyshevski’s second son.  Born sometime between 1855 and 1858, according to The Gift (see G235)  After giving birth to Sasha, (Chernyshevski, Aleksandr (‘Sasha’) Nikolaevich), Olga Sokratovna is “warned that a second child w[ill] kill her,” however, she and “the infant Victor survive[ ]” (G235).

 

chess problems: Along with Nabokov, Fyodor finds pleasure in the solving and composition of chess problems (G208, 363).

 

Chestnost’: The Russian concept of “honesty”. In The Gift, it is used to describe the student Dobrolyubov whose acquaintance with N. Chernyshevski marks a new phase in his life (the transition from the “revolution of the Pushkin theme”): “…a new character…is awaiting his entrance…and here he comes in the tightly buttoned, blue-collared regulation coat of a university student, fairly reeking of chestnost’…”(G259).

 

Cheviot jacket: a jacket made from the wool of a breed of sheep from the mountain range of the same name on the Scottish-English border. Fyodor imagines one worn by his father, Konstantin Kirillovich Godunov-Cherdyntsev (G354).

 

Chinese Rhubarb: One of the oldest Chinese herbal medicines obtained from the dried root bark of a perennial plant native to Tibet and northwest China. Fyodor imagines witch doctors collecting the root in the journey to Asia of Chapter Two (G123).

Image source: http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/Root/rhubarb2002.html 

 

“The Chords of Love”: one of the sections of Prince Volkhovsky's book of poetry, Auroras and Stars (G 148).

 

Classicism: something that belongs to or constitutes a standard or model; especially in literature. For a time in his youth, Fyodor considers avant-garde poetry to be a classicism (G149).

 

Cocoon: A casing of silk made by moth caterpillars to protect the pupa, often attached to trees or like surfaces.  After a gestation period, the insect emerges from the cocoon in a transformed state.  "'Alas, alive,' we exclaimed, for how could one not prefer the death penalty, the convulsions of the hanged man in his hideous cocoon, to that funeral which twenty-five insipid years later fell to Chernyshevski's lot" (G281).

 

Colt revolver: type of gun also known as a Colt 45; owned by Kirill Ilyich. John Browning worked for the Colt company before starting his own firearms business (G102).

 

Columbine: The French spelling for the Italian character Columbina. She is a fictional comic servant from the Commedia dell 'Arte; a popular form of improvisational theatre that emerged in 15th Century Italy (G205).

Image Source: http://www.teatrodinessuno.it/maschere/mascheracolombina.htm

 

Communication: A small volume of poems by Koncheyev (G156, 167).

 

Colonel Kasatkin, See: Kasatkin, Colonel: A friend of the Shchogolev’s who would come to visit the house when Fyodor is living there. See Kasatkin, Colonel (G183).

 

Congress of Vienna: a conference held from October 1, 1814 to June 9, 1815. Ambassadors from the major European powers attended. Its purpose was to redraw the continent's political map after the defeat of Napoleon (G 152).

 

Contemporary, The: a.k.a. Sovremennik the title of a Russian literary social and political magazine published in St. Petersburg from 1836-1866. It was started as a private venture by Alexander Pushkin, and subsequently changed editorial hands many times (Pyotr Pletnykov-->Nikolai Nekrasov-->Ivan Panayev-->Alexander Nikitenko-->Vissarion Belinsky) before being inherited by Chernyshevski in 1853. It mainly published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic, and other material. Many leading writers and poets contributed to it: Goncharov, Turgenev, Gogol, Tyutchev, etc. (G214, 240-241, 246, 248 – 251, 256, 264, 268, 274, 276)

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sovremennik.jpg

 

Copenhagen: the island capital of Denmark to which the Shchyogolevs are moving near the end of the novel (G351).

 

Copper: Species of butterfly (G133).

 

Cossack: Traditional community living in the southern steppe regions of Asian Russia. They are famous for their military skill, self-reliance and horsemanship. In the novel, a rebellion related to war work breaks out among the Kirghiz and the Cossacks (G105, 131).  

 

Coué, Émile: (February 26, 1857 – July 2, 1926) French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy, healing, and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. The application of his familiar conscious autosuggestion, "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better" (Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux), is the best known example of what is often called Couéism or the Coué method. The Coué method depended on the routine repetition of such expressions, according to a specified ritual, at the beginning and the ending of each day (G50).

 

Image Source: http://www.durbinhypnosis.com/coue.htm

 

Crimean estate: The summer home of the Godunov-Cherdyntsevs on the coast between Yalta and Alupka (G128).

 

Crusades, The: The Crusades were a series of religious wars between 1095 and 1291; some minor wars in the 15^th and 16^th centuries are also called crusades.  A crusade was basically a war that had been sanctioned by the pope (or the Roman Catholic Church).  In the medieval crusades, the pope would bestow or draw the cross upon a man to signal that he was a soldier of a crusade.  The cross was a sanctioning and a blessing.  Chernyshevski, “the son of a priest,” “mock[s] the Crusaders[,] . . . chalk[ing] a cross upon the back of everyone in turn: the mark of Olga Sokratovna’s lovesick admirers” (see Saint Olga) (G230).

 

cuckoo: species of bird which are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of birds of other species. The chick which hatches from the egg laid in another species' nest methodically evicts all other occupants (G78).

 

Common cuckoo.

Image source: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://haryana-online.com/images/Birds/Aure/Eurasian%2520Cuckoo%2520-%2520Aure.jpg

 

cupule: cup-shaped structure at the base of an acorn (G78).

 

curds-and-whey: the two types of proteins found in skim milk. They separate from each other when the chemical rennin is added to them to create what is commonly called cottage cheese . Fyodor remembers yearning for curds-and-whey with black bread on nights that he returned home after being with Zina (G150).

 

cut-glass egg: A fragile three-dimensional egg made of specially blown glass that then has designs "cut" into it (G22).