Lo Scarafaggio di Ethel Lilian Vojnic

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Chi fra voi ha letto il romanzo The Gadfly (Lo Scarafaggio) di Ethel Lilian Vojnic?
La scrittrice inglese fu la moglie dell’esule polacco Michail Vilfrid Vojnic, rifugiatosi a Londra in fuga dalla Siberia. L’azione del romanzo si svolge a Pisa negli anni 1830-40 e narra le vicende di un gruppo di rivoluzionari appartenenti alla Giovine Italia. Il romanzo vide la luce a New York nel 1897 e fu poi tradotto in russo e in numerose altre lingue. Fu pubblicato a Pietroburgo nel 1900 e fino alla Rivoluzione d’Ottobre uscì in 14 edizioni. Questo romanzo, praticamente sconosciuto in Italia, è stato per moltissimi anni un bestseller in URSS dove ha rappresentato per generazioni di lettori un vero e proprio manifesto di libertà e di devozione agli ideali rivoluzionari ed ha inoltre ispirato la Rivoluzione Culturale in Cina.

Raffaele

[petronius]

Chi fra voi ha letto il romanzo The Gadfly (Lo Scarafaggio) di Ethel Lilian Vojnic?
La scrittrice inglese fu la moglie dell’esule polacco Michail Vilfrid Vojnic, rifugiatosi a Londra in fuga dalla Siberia. L’azione del romanzo si svolge a Pisa negli anni 1830-40 e narra le vicende di un gruppo di rivoluzionari appartenenti alla Giovine Italia. Il romanzo vide la luce a New York nel 1897 e fu poi tradotto in russo e in numerose altre lingue. Fu pubblicato a Pietroburgo nel 1900 e fino alla Rivoluzione d’Ottobre uscì in 14 edizioni. Questo romanzo, praticamente sconosciuto in Italia, è stato per moltissimi anni un bestseller in URSS dove ha rappresentato per generazioni di lettori un vero e proprio manifesto di libertà e di devozione agli ideali rivoluzionari ed ha inoltre ispirato la Rivoluzione Culturale in Cina.

Raffaele

Sei sicuro che non fosse "Il Tafano"? In questo caso ne ho letto due pagine per fare bella figura con un'ottima universitaria che me ne aveva parlato. Oltre alla lingua, in quel caso inglese, dopo quattro minuti sono stato colpito da un collasso ed ho rinunciato...

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La femme de Wilfrid Voynich, Ethel Lillian Voynich Boole, est bien connue comme auteur. Elle était une socialiste fervent, et son roman The Gadfly (La Mouche*Cheval) a connu un succès énorme dans l'Union Soviétique . Les Russes ont même nommé un cratère de la planète Venus pour elle. Le célèbre compositeur russe Dmitri Chostakovitch a composé une suite orchestrale pour The Gadfly .

Certains ont dit que l'affaire d'Ethel Voynich avec l'espion brittanique Sidney George Reilly a inspiré un caractère important dans The Gadfly .

Une Bibliographie des Ouvrages d'Ethel Voynich
Chopin, Frederic, Chopin's letters ; collected by Henryk Opieºnski; translated from the original Polish and French, with a preface and editorial notes, by E. L. Voynich. (Chopin, Frédéric, Les Lettres de Chopin ; rassemblées par Henryk Opieºnski ; traduites des originales polonaises et françaises, avec un avant-*propos et des notes de rédaction, par E. L. Voynich.) (New York, A. A. Knopf, c1931.) x, 420 iv p., 1 ". illus. (plan, music) 25 cm. ML410.C54 A26
Voynich, E. L. (Ethel Lillian), The Gadfly (La Mouche-cheval). (New York, Henry Holt and Co., 1897.) iii, 373 p. 20 cm. PS 3129 V8 G3 1897
Voynich, E. L. (Ethel Lillian), Put off thy shoes (Debarrasse-*toi de tes chaussures) . New York, The Macmillan company, 1945. viii, 456 p. 21 cm. PR6043.O78 P8 1945
Voynich, Ethel Lillian, Six Lyrics From the Ruthenian of Taras Shevchenko, also the Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov from the Russian of Mikhail Lermontov. / Rendered into English verse with a biographical sketch by E.L. Voynich. {Six Lyriques en ukrainien occidental de Taras Chevtchenko, aussi La Chanson du Marchand Kalachnikov en russe de Mikhail Lermontov. / traduits en versets anglais avec un résumé biographique par E.L. Voynich.} (London: Elkin Mathews, 1911.) 63 pages. (The Vigo Cabinet Series, Nº 86).

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petit images

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Papers of George Boole

The papers of George Boole, first Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s College Cork, are preserved in the archives section of the library which bears his name, the Boole Library, University College, Cork. The inventor of Boolean logic, he laid the foundations in the latter half of the nineteenth century of a system of mathematical expression which formed the basis for all modern computer languages.
The collection consists mainly of personal letters to and from Boole which were collected by his sister Maryann, who had hoped one day to publish a biography of her famous brother. This archive offers us insights into the life of George Boole from the period immediately prior to his arrival in Cork in 1849, until his death in 1864. Very few of Boole’s academic works are preserved here, however drafts of unpublished lectures dealing with such topics as astronomy, ancient mythology, education and one entitled "Are the Planets Inhabited?" are extant.
Boole’s letters home to his sister after his arrival in Ireland contain valuable social information on the Cork of the mid nineteenth century, where lavish banquets were given to the elite while crowds of beggars thronged the streets. In October 1849 he describes one encounter with Cork’s poor which "far exceeded in horror anything not only that I had ever before witnessed but that I had even read of." He was present in Cork for the great flood of 1850, and was trapped upstairs in his lodgings by the flood waters, while friends of his were forced to traverse the streets in a boat.
The insights Boole’s letters give into the world of 19th century academia can be amusing as well as informative, as when in a letter to his friend, Dr. John Bury, he inquires whether or not his wife should continue to wear stays (corsets) while ‘confined’. The constant financial worries evidenced throughout his letters reflect a system by which professors were paid according to the number of students who had enrolled in their classes.
A large section of the collection contains material relating to Boole’s wife, Mary Everest,(after whose uncle the world’s highest peak was named), and their five daughters. One daughter, Mary Ellen Hinton spent some years in Japan as a teacher at the close of the century. Her diary, which contains wonderful descriptions of the sights she saw and people she met, is preserved here. Another daughter, Ethel Lilian Voynich, was the author of the novel ‘The Gadfly’ which she wrote after an affair with the renowned secret agent, Sydney Reilly.
The Boole papers of UCC provide valuable information for social historians of the 19th in Ireland, researchers interested in the development of Irish university and academic life, and researchers interested in both the development of Cork City and UCC. They provide a unique insight into the life and mind of one of the most brilliant and respected mathematicians of the 19th century.

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Этель Лилиан Войнич
Ethel Lilian Voynich
Ирландия, 11.05.1864 - 28.07.1960

(11.5.1864, Корк, Ирландия, - 28.7.1960, Нью-Йорк), английская писательница. Дочь английского математика Дж. Буля, жена польского революционера М. Войнича. Дружила с С. М. Степняком-Кравчинским. В 1887-89 жила в России. Была знакома с Ф. Энгельсом, Г. В. Плехановым. С 1920 жила в Нью-Йорке. Выступила как переводчик русской литературы и нескольких стихотворений Т. Г. Шевченко на английский язык. Лучшее произведение Войнич - революционный роман "Овод" (1897, рус. пер. 1898), посвященный освободительной борьбе итальянского народа в 30 - 40-х гг. 19 в. Роман стал в России одной из любимых книг молодёжи; неоднократно использовался как литературная основа спектаклей, фильмов, оперы.
Другие романы Войнич - "Джек Реймонд" (1901, рус. пер. 1902), "Оливия Лэтам" (1904, рус. пер. 1906), "Прерванная дружба" (1910, рус. пер. под названием "Овод в изгнании", 1926), "Сними обувь твою" (1945, рус. пер. 1958) - сохраняют тот же бунтарский дух. Написала несколько музыкальных сочинений, ее оратория "Вавилон" (1948) посвящена свержению самодержавия в России.

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Ethel Lilian Boole was introduced to Kravchinskii, the Russian revolutionary leader in 1886.
"Born near Grodno in 1865, Voinich was almost a generation younger than the other members of the Fund. He had worked for two years with the Polish revolutionary party, Proletariat, until his arrest in Warsaw in 1886. After 18 months in the citadel in Warsaw he was exiled to Irkutsk where he met Kravchinskii's sister-in-law Praskov'ia Karaulova who persuaded him to escape to England(1). He arrived in London in October 1890. Shortly afterwards (n.d.r.l.: 1893), he married Lilly Boole who was to loyally second him in all his disputes with the other fundists." p.81.
Between 1890 and 1894, he was directly involved in the political activities of Russian refugees in London, under the leadership of Stepniak - Kravchinskii, who founded the SFRF (Society of Friends of Russian Freedom) and the RFPF (Russian Free Press Fund).





On Ethel Voynich and her work for Free Russia

Free Russia devoted two or three pages in every issue to translations from
recent Russian fiction, chosen for its social commentary.
" The translations were the work of Ethel Lilian Boole. She married Michael Voinich in 1893 and wrote henceforth under her married name, E.L. Voynich. She is chiefly remembered for The Gadfly a novel which enjoys a far greater vogue in Russia than in the West. Charlotte Wilson introduced her to Kravchinskii in 1886, and he taugh her Russian in an astonishingly short time. She spent almost a year in 1887-88 in Russia, where she travelled in the company of Fanny Kravchinskaia 's sisters and was drawn into the periphery of the revolutionary movement. A stern and humorless woman, she was nonetheless a great favorite of Kravchinskii, who nicknamed her "Bulochka" (2). She was a tireless worker for Free Russia. Editing, translating, and, to Volkhovskii's annoyance, meddling in the most important policy decisions (3). After her marriage to Voinich she regarded herself as a participating member of the RFPF. As the resident translator of Free Russia she was charged with translating Kravchinskii's Chego nam nuzhno and Zagranichnaia agitatsiia into English. Even apart from her work on Free Russia, her career as a translator was supervised and directed by Kravchinskii. He provided introductions to her very popular collection, The Humor of Russia, and her Stories from Garshin; and after his death she published a collection of poems by his favorite author, the Ukrainian, Shevchenko.". p.59.

On Voynich and the RFPF
" In June 1891 Kravchinskii, together with four other émigrés, Volkovskii, Chaikovskii, M.V. Voinich, and L.E. Shisko established the Russian Literary Fund, soon renamed the Russian Free Press Fund (Fond vol'noi russkoi pressy) (4) . Krachinskii viewed the Fund as the Russian counterpart to Free Russia. Because of the censorship, he believed that most Russians were scarcely more aware of the true state of affairs in Russia than were the English (5). The task of the RFPF was to dispel this ignorance." p.72.
" Shishko was immediately accepted as a full-fledged participant in the councils of the RFPF. This situation provoked the resentment of Michael Voinich, the fifth of the original fundists , who keely felt he was being treated as an outsider(6). Voinich's resentment is understandable, for even to an unprejudiced eye it would appear that Shishko was very ill-equipped to make any useful contribution to the work of the fund…Voinich summed it up, " He's a nice fellow, but not of this world "(7)" . p.73.

On Voynich' personality
" Voinich was a capable and energetic man. No one ever criticized his efficiency in managing the Fund's business. However, he has serious personality flaws which almost immediately caused friction with the others members of the RFPF and eventually forced him to resign from the organization. He regarded himself just as much of a theorist as Volkhovskii or Chaikovskii and chafed at being relegated to handling the more mundane side of the Fund's affairs. The older fundists, especially Volkhovskii, treated him as mere apprentice, immature and unsuited for the serious task of shaping the Fund's policy(8). Secondly, Voinich was by all accounts insufferably brash and rude. There was something about him that caused everybody to bridle at his presence. He made two trips to the continent in search of support for the Fund, and each time only managed to further alienate Lavrov and Plekhanov, a fact duly noted by the Russian secret police (9) ". p.81.

On Voynich, books and money
" The stock of books which was assembled at the Fund's offices at 15 Augustus Road in Hammersmith reflects in its composition the vnepartiinyi character of the Fund's appeal…Beginning with writings of K. R. Ryleev and others Decembrists, the stock catalogue was a reading list for the history of the 19th century revolutionary though…". p.75.
" The RFPF was relatively successful as a business operation. In their desire to widen their activities, the fundists frequently complained of lack of money; but the income of the RFPF consistently exceeded that of the SFRF, rising from almost nothing in 1891 to a peak of 427 pounds for the year 1895(10). The most profitable enterprise of the Fund was the sale of books which provided approximately one third of the total income. " p.80.
" The first business manager of the Fund was Michael Wilfred Voinich ". p.81.
"Late in 1894 Voinich left the RFPF, apparently taking a list of the Fund's correspondents with him, and established the Bookseller's Union (Soiuz knigonosh). Voinich wrote that the Soiuz knigonosh was a "repudiation of the narrowly-nationalist and narrow party views " of the Fund. Its task would be " the transmission of literature in Polish, Armenian and Jewish and designed for everyone - Stundists, politicals, etc. (11) " . Actually he envisioned something quite similar to the RFPF but on a vastly larger scale. Since he had no money and the help of only his wife, the sole accomplishment of the Bookseller's Union was the printing of a single prospectus." p.81.
This was probably the first contact between Voynich, books, and the business of bookseller.
Herbert Garland, who joined the Voynich's firm as a cataloguer, in Shaftesbury Avenue, between 1909 and 1916, write (12): "His career as a politician does not belong to this article, but it is relevant to mention that he afterwards made an important collection of literature connected with the Polish revolutionary movement, including some very rare proclamations of the 1849 period, which is now in the library of the London School of economics."
Voynich became finally an antiquarian bookseller about 1897, on a suggestion of Dr. Richard Garnett, as related by Herbert Garland. Some clues of his reputation and success are mentionned in his article. In his catalogues, " he employed a method which he never gave up, even after he ceased to issue printed catalogues. Its main characteristic was that every book, whether of great or small importance, was described with a wealth of bibliographical detail, far more than has hitherto, or has since, been attempted in a sale catalogue". (He created added value and strengthened the link between the book and the client). " Voynich was one of the first booksellers, who periodically and systematically...made personal visits to the Continent which extended into the remoter parts of France, Spain and Italy" (He offered a large choice of books)." The eight of his first series of catalogues, issued in 1902, wa of "lost books", that is books of which no other copy was known. It aroused considerable interest and the collection was purchased en bloc by subscription, and now reposes in the British Museum as the "Voynich" collection" (great sense of sensational marketing). "He was also the first to establish branches of his business abroad " (mondialisation and multinational firm).

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ndr socialismo mazziniano e bolscevismo utopico, hanno spesso allacciato legami di simpatia molto concreta...
E' pur vero che una volta, Marx rivolgendosi ad un suo amico, durante l'internazionale, disse, indicando Mazzini: "chi è quell'idiota?"
La storia è andata come è andata.
Mazzini ha fatto l'Italia.
Marx non ha fatto la Russia.

[cariddeo]

ndr socialismo mazziniano e bolscevismo utopico, hanno spesso allacciato legami di simpatia molto concreta...
E' pur vero che una volta, Marx rivolgendosi ad un suo amico, durante l'internazionale, disse, indicando Mazzini: "chi è quell'idiota?"
La storia è andata come è andata.
Mazzini ha fatto l'Italia.
Marx non ha fatto la Russia.

Grazie mille dei preziossimi contributi, caro Tonino!
L'hai letto il libro?
Che ne pensi!

Raffaele

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Grazie mille dei preziossimi contributi, caro Tonino!
L'hai letto il libro?
Che ne pensi!

Raffaele

Ciao Raffaele, complimenti per il tuo Blog; anche se, a voler essere pignuolo, la dimensione del carattere è eccessiva; una scrittura più piccola, darebbe un tocco di eleganza in più.
Per quanto riguarda il libro, gli diedi un'occhiata in una biblioteca; ma lo stile è quello del tempo, e quindi ho desistito; dato che preferisco uno stile più asciutto ed essenziale.
Inoltre, non avevo molto tempo...quel giorno.
Bene hai fatto ad aprire questo 3d che getta una luce, su alcuni nervi sensibili, che si muovevano "dietro le quinte" di quegli anni, e si mossero, "tali nervi OCCULTI" negli anni successivi...come ad esempio, il plotone di SS che scortò Evola fino a Berlino, gli ultimi giorni del Reich; oppure, il viaggio di Hesse ( si dice fosse andato per compiere alcuni riti ) in Inghilterra, a cercare di mediare con i più alti gradi Massonici Anglofili; oppure, le coperture che Lenin aveva anche all'interno dell'Impero AustroUngarico.
Infine, notevole, l'episodio dei riti fatti su un fascio Etrusco, da alcuni uomini misteriosi, che propiziarono la marcia su Roma; riti, di cui parlano alcuni membri del Magico gruppo di UR, in uno dei tre libri sulla Magia.

Mi ripropongo di tornare su questi temi in seguito, con più calma, dato che in questo periodo sono oberato da molti impegni di lavoro.
Ciao
Antonio


ndr per quanto riguarda i "Riti" che muovono la storia, nel mio piccolo ne fui partecipe personalmente.
Mio nonno paterno, contadino, figlio di contadini, nipote di contadini...quando avevo 14 anni, mi chiamò e mi disse che doveva tagliarmi i capelli, con un "pugnale rituale" che passava di mano in mano, da i suoi antenati...disse che era un "antichissimo rito propiziatorio" della virilità contadina.
Lui era fedele al Re...altri contadini, altri tempi...
Mi risulta, da molte dritte avute in ambienti esoterici, che, molti riti, venivano regolarmente eseguiti durante il Fascismo, dal Patriziato Romano, lo stesso Patriziato di Augusto, che era giunto fino al ventennio, mantenendo intatti i Matrimoni, solo tra alcune famiglie nobili di Roma.