V. introduces the story he has heard from Natasha Rosanov in a rather theatrical way. He claims to have collected “one of the most precious pages of Sebastian’s life.” And he notices a “strange harmony” as he hears about Sebastian’s “first adolescent romance” at a time when “the echoes of his last dark love” are still audible. V. alludes to the coinci-dence that Sebastian has twice been spurned (also coincidental is that Natasha Rosanov and Nina Rechnoy share the same initials). After V.’s introductory remarks the real spectacle begins: “[t]he lights go out, the curtain rises.” This opening suggests that there may have been rehears-als. Indeed one of the novels on Sebastian’s bookshelves, Madame Bovary, and the novel V. saw while waiting for Madame Lecerf, The Story of San Michele, have a similar scene with two lovers in a rowboat.
In Madame Bovary Emma and Léon hire a boat as they wish to dine on an island on the Seine “like two Robinsons.” When they return at night she is painfully reminded of Rodolphe, her former lover, who left her (Flaubert 272–274).
Emma used to meet her lovers at the same spot near the river, where, one evening, the poplars screened the moon “like a black curtain” and where “sometimes at the top of the reeds or on the leaf of a water-lily an insect with fine legs crawled or rested” (209, 101).
In Axel Munthe’s novel the narrator is invited to visit a countess in the country. The visit is comparable to V.’s visit to Lescaut: the much older husband is ignored and the young male visitors are reviewed in their capacity as possible lovers. The countess’ guest is allowed to row
“her slowly across the shining lake” (Munthe 74). In The Real Life of Sebastian Knight three more scenes are enacted after the boat trip:
Sebastian’s riparian reading of his poems to Natasha who sits beside him on a bench, a walk under a sky full of stars and an autumnal last meeting. In The Story of San Michele, a comparable sequence is
presented; rowing, sitting on a bench while reciting poetry, and a noc-turnal walk abruptly ending when, as in the case of Sebastian and Natasha, an owl is heard hooting.
The point is that, despite its romantic glamour, the lovers in the rowboat are not really in love. Léon (and Rodolphe as well) enjoys intimacy with the frantic Emma no longer than the liaison excites him as a novelty. And the narrator in Munthe knows that he will make a fool of himself if he tries to make advances to the countess. The same lack of uninhibited love can be observed in the romance between Sebastian and Natasha as the reference to Judas betrays. Anyway, their courtship is never cheerful; what is quoted from their conversation sounds rather sad: a mild reproof; two ques-tions, “Must you go?” and “Is this the end?” and finally a written word which finishes all.
2. CALENDAR
1890–1895 .
Sebastian’s father courts Virginia Knight.
1899
On December 31, Sebastian is born to the married couple.
1902–1903
Clare Bishop born.
1904
Virginia leaves her husband and her son.
1905
V. born after Sebastian’s father has married V.’s mother.
1907–1908
Nina Tooveretz born.
1908
Virginia visits her son Sebastian in St Petersburg.
1909
Virginia dies of heart-failure in Roquebrune.
1913
In January Sebastian’s father fights a duel with Pahlchin. He dies a month later.
1916
Sebastian has an adolescent romance with Natasha Rosanov.
1917
Sebastian accompanies Alexis Pan on his travels.
1918–1919
V.’s mother, Sebastian and V. flee from Bolshevik Russia. They live for some time in Helsingfors. Sebastian leaves for Cambridge, V. and his mother settle in Paris.
1920
Sebastian visits his stepmother and half-brother in Paris.
1921–1922
Sebastian goes to Germany for a short vacation.
1922
V.’s mother has her last, fatal operation. Sebastian comes to Paris to attend her funeral.
He makes a trip to the Continent and visits Monte Carlo and nearby Roquebrune. He settles in London at 36 Oak Park Gardens.
1924
Sebastian meets Clare. In the autumn Clare stays in Paris where she is visited by Sebastian several times. In November or December V. meets Sebastian and Clare during one of Sebastian’s visits to Paris. Sebastian composes The Prismatic Bezel.
1925
Sebastian starts composing Success in July. The Prismatic Bezel is pub-lished in March.
1926
Sebastian goes to Germany and comes “across a man he had known ages ago in Russia.” In April Success is published.
1927
Pahl Pahlich Rechnoy meets Nina Tooveretz, at that time “another’s fellow’s mistress,” and eventually marries her.
1927–1929
Sebastian shows “dreadfull fits of temper” he never had before. Clare is
“left behind,” and feels that something is “awry.”
1927–1930
Sebastian writes three stories: The Funny Mountain, Albinos in Black and The Back of the Moon.
1929
Sebastian is advised by Dr. Oates to go to an Alsace kurort to receive a
“certain treatment.” In June Sebastian leaves for Blauberg and Clare is not allowed to join him. Before returning to England Sebastian spends a week in Paris where he invites V. for dinner. Back in London he stops talking to Clare, who thinks that he has “gone mad.” Sebastian starts receiving letters in Russian from a woman he had met in Blauberg.
In September he leaves England. Clare changes her lodgings. Sebastian begins writing Lost Property. Pahl Pahlich Rechnoy divorces Nina Tooveretz.
1930
Sebastian returns to England, where he engages Goodman as his secretary.
Continues to work on Lost Property.
1932
Sebastian’s three stories are republished in one volume, The Funny Mountain.
1933–1934
Clare marries Mr. Bishop.
1933–1935
Sebastian writes The Doubtful Asphodel.
1934
Sebastian dismisses Goodman and writes to Carswell from Cannes.
1935
Colonel Samain sojourns in the Beaumont Hotel. The Doubtful Asphodel is published. Mr. H. is “standing happily near a brand-new car.” Nina marries Monsieur Lecerf. Sebastian meets Helen Pratt in London, visits a house in the country and has a lunch with Sheldon.
1936
V.’s visit to Madame Lecerf’s country house marks the climax of his quest and ends the research for his biography. This visit happens “two months” after Sebastian’s death “in the very beginning of 1936” (162, 181). In March, however, V. was still in London visiting Mr. Goodman.
The talks with Miss Pratt, Mr. Bishop (and the meeting with Clare), P. G. Sheldon and Roy Carswell follow V.’s visit to Mr. Goodman. It seems unlikely that V. then travels to Blauberg and to Berlin to see Helene Grinstein and the Rosanovs, completes his round of visits in Paris, and then travels to Lescaux in the middle of March, especially not since the company that employs V. becomes increasingly critical about his absences (160, 166). This is not the only flaw in V.’s calen-dar. Even more serious is the mist that envelops the date of Sebastian’s death. That he “died in the very beginning of 1936” has to be compared with the letter that V. receives in “the middle of January 1936,” since Sebastian dies a day after its arrival (181, 183).
If one follows the events in the final chapters it appears that V.
receives Sebastian’s letter on a Thursday and finds Doctor Starov’s tele-gram on “Friday” (188).
He leaves Marseilles with the 0.02 train for Paris where he arrives at a quarter to four, on the same day, Saturday. He then goes to his office where his presence is met with surprise and where he talks with his chief. This is most puzzling as offices in Paris in 1936 were normally closed on Saturday afternoon. In St. Damier he learns that Sebastian died the day before his arrival, which would be Friday.
Instead of Friday, January 17 (which matches with “the middle of January”), Thursday, January 9, 1936 (9-1-1936) as the day of Sebastian’s death would fit with the “occult resemblance between a man and the date of his death . . . 1936” and with Doctor Starov’s tele-phone number “Jasmin 61–93.” V.’s visit to his Paris office should than be dated January 10, a feasible Friday.
According to the Gregorian calender Pushkin died on February 10, 1837 (10-2-1837), which means that Sebastian died one day, one month, and one year earlier than the date of Pushkin’s death a century earlier. (See also section 4. 24.)
The main events in 1936 are as follows:
January
In the first half of this month V. receives a letter from Sebastian. The next day Sebastian dies, and the following day V. arrives in St. Damier.
February
V. visits Sebastian’s Cambridge friend.