Difference between revisions of "ATD 695-723"

Revision as of 22:28, 23 February 2007

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

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Page 697

Cyprian
Cf page 489: Cyprian Latewood.

Austro-Hungarian Emigrants embarking in Trieste ca. 1907

emigrant traffic to America
According to this german Wikipedia paragraph about 3.5 to 4 Million emigrants left Austria-Hungary between 1876 and 1910, almost 3 millions of them heading to U.S.A., most of them via Hamburg but many from Triest, too (the travel from there took about two weeks). In 1907 alone it was about half a million emigrants. In 1910 the population of Austria-Hungary was about 51.4 millions.

Fiume
Cf page 529: Fiume.

Whitehead Torpedo Factory
Cf page 529: Whitehead works in Fiume and Robert Whitehead (1823-1905). (Wikipedia on Robert Whitehead)

Zengg
German name for the town of Senj, Croatia.

Uskok
Serbian/Croatian: fugitive. What Pynchon is circumscribing here is the fact that the Uskoks of Zengg were a famous pirate community. (Uskok)

the Macedonian Question
Cf page 690: the Macedonia Question.
Raised, apparently, only among non-Macedonians. What boundaries are the Powers to create and which Power is to have dominant interest there?
served.
Area known as Macedonia comprises five soveriegn states in the present. There is a whole article on The Macedonia Question in The Encyclopedia Brittanica, if anyone has access and wants to post it. Winston Churchill: "Macedonia has more history than it can consume".

This contributor tries to destill the "Macedonin Question" from Wikipedia and, just having access to the 1911 Encyclopedia Article on Macedonia, from that article:

1. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 had its origins in the Russian goal of gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea and liberating the Orthodox Christian Slavic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula (Bulgarians, Serbians) from the Islamic-ruled Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia 1

2. The war resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878), which granted control over Macedonia to russophile Bulgaria Wikipedia 2

3. ...but got overruled by the Treaty of Berlin a few months later Wikipedia 3, thereby giving back control over Macedonia to Turkey (Ottoman Empire)

4. The 1911 Britannica says the "Macedonian Question" arises with the Treaty of Berlin read here about the complexities (last couple paragraphs)

5. All this geopolitical/-commercial/nationalist/religion-inspired madness - among which the "Macedonian Question" is just a part - leads to "Balkan Wars 1 & 2" (1912-1913) Wikipedia 4 (and WW1).

Triest and Fiume on either side of the Istrian Peninsula
See Picture (remember Rijeka is Fiume).

Page 698

The Prater
The Wiener (Vienna) Prater is a large public park (approximately 4,000 acres) and consists of lawns, gardens, and forests source and is located in Vienna's second district Wikipedia Fotos from about 1900. Ever since the Prater was opened to the public in 1766 it has attracted fun-seekers - and prostitution.

The 1873 World Fair took place here. This site comes with interesting links about the Fair.

knout-fancier
The knout was a heavy whip used for punishment and compulsion in Russia. A knout-fancier is a sadist specializing in this instrument.

Capuziner
Should be: Kapuziner. The Austrian variety of Cappuccino; it is done with sweetened whipped cream instead of milk froth.

Page 699

Restaurant Eisvogel ca. 1865

Leopoldstadt
Vienna‘s 2nd district Wikipedia. The relevant 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Vienna entry reads: "Leopoldstadt which together with Brigittenau are the only districts on the left bank of the Danube Canal, is the chief commercial quarter, and is inhabited to a great extent by Jews."

Eisvogel
A traditional restaurant in the Prater. Eisvogel = kingfisher

Misha and Grisha
Russian: Diminutives, nicknames, short forms of the given names Mikhail and Grigorii, Michael and Gregory. Yes, they are both masculine names (and so is Sasha in most cases).

the Giant Wheel
The Giant Ferris Wheel of Vienna, a landmark of the city opened in 1897, is located in the VolksPrater (Amusement Park) section of the Prater. This famous wheel rises 209 ft above the ground. It appeared in the movie The Third Man (1949): Joseph Cotton used the wheel as a meeting place with Orson Welles.

IX Bezirk
The Ninth District (or Ward) of Vienna. Freud among many others kept an office there Wikipedia. Basically, the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Vienna entry; "Alsergrund, with the enormous general hospital, the military hospital and the municipal asylum for the insane, is the medical quarter." is still valid nowadays.

Page 700

The Colonel himself removed the blindfold
see Cyprian's conversation with his father at P.491 - "Are you a general?" "More like a Colonel."

non-Prussian, indeed crypto-Oriental, blood
Some writers were at pains to equate brutal Germans with Huns.

In case the Colonel is Max Khäutsch this recalls Lew‘s first impression when meeting him as a watchdog of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the Columbian Fair (p. 47): "... the oblique plains of his face revealing an origin somewhere in the Slavic vastness of Europe as yet but lightly traveled by the recreational visitor..."

Volksgarten
A park in Vienna‘s inner city, close to the parliament german Wikipedia

"Ritter Georg Hoch!"
a hymn (sung to this tune) to the Führer of the "Alldeutsche Vereinigung", Ritter Georg von Schönerer (1842-1921), Austrian politician, Pan-Germanist, Arch-Anti-Semite, Slavophobe, Anti-Catholic. He was a son of Austrian Railroad Tycoon Matthias Schönerer. Schönerer‘s ideas had a major influence on Adolf Hitler who lived in Vienna 1908-1913 (aged 19-24) Wikipedia interesting book

Page 701

Crikey
euphemism for Christ.

Newmarket
Cf page 495: Newmarket.

Theign, Derrick
Book title, Anglo-Saxon Theign: The collapse of Roman rule in Britain was not so much a sudden catastrophe as a long and drawn-out decline. The 'Celtic' Britons retreated gradually to the highland areas of Wales, Cornwall and the south-west of Scotland. Control of the fertile eastern lowlands was lost to warriors of Germanic origin who migrated from the Continent. These Germanic conquerors have become known to history as the 'Anglo-Saxons'.

In Henry James' novel The Outcry, there's a widowed Lord Theign, who to cover the gambling debts of his daughter Kitty Imber, is planning to sell his beautiful painting Duchess of Waterbridge by Sir Joshua Reynolds to American billionaire Breckinridge Bender; code name "Good Shepherd" in Vienna.

Page 702

Zsuzsa
Pronounced ZHOO-zha. Has TRP been watching "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"? The artiste in maquillage will give Cyprian's hair a little zhözh.

atelier
Designer's/craftman's studio

Hotel Neue Mutzenbacher
Josefine Mutzenbacher is a (probably fictional) Vienna courtesan from the 1906 novel of the same title. The novel was published anonymously, but is often ascribed to Felix Salten (author of "Bambi"). It is regarded as the only important work of pornographic literature in the German language, but didn't find a large audience until the 1970s. Josefine gets abused as a child and starts working as a prostitute at the age of 14, both of which is described in much detail. The novel has repeatedly been subject of discussions about artistic freedom, but was finally indexed as child pornography in Germany in 1982. German Wikipedia

Page 703

Stiftskaserne
Stiftskaserne in German.

Fiaker...Fiakerlieder
Traditional Viennese two horse cab website. "Fiakerlieder" are songs about/sung by the cabbys, more often than not of the sentimental kind.

Süd-Bahnhof
One of Vienna‘s main railway stations Wikipedia. Located about a mile from the city‘s center. From here trains would leave towards the south "Südbahn". This railway wasnt nationalized until 1924.

Ostend Express...Staatsbahn
Thats quite confusing: the Vienna-Ostend-Express (on tracks 1894-1914 & 1925 until mid 1990‘s german Wikipedia) left from the Westbahnhof Wikipedia. The "Westbahn" was nationalized (german: verstaatlicht) in 1882, so "Staatsbahn" might refer to the Westbahnhof. However, from 1910-1914 the "Staatsbahnhof" was the railwaystation where trains to the east left Vienna - no trains to Belgium or a home further west there.

"A thousand Kreuzer? That isn‘t even ten quid.", ..."thirty K. per day"
It is rather unlikely that Theign hands out "Kreuzer", unless the Fiaker-ride takes place pre-1900: Austrian currency from 1892 on was the "Krone" ("Crown"; abbrevation: K.) which consisted of 100 "Heller" Wikipedia. From January 1st, 1900, on it completely replaced the "Gulden" which had consisted of 60 "Kreuzer" Wikipedia. But then, maybe, the old nomination "Kreuzer" remained as a common term for the new currency‘s smaller unit "Heller" for some while afterwards. "Quid" is slang for the British Pound Sterling Wikipedia. According to this site ten "quid" from early 1900s would equal some 700+ pounds as per 2006.

...passing electric lamplight flaring...
According to this site (german) in the early 1900s most of Viennas street lights with the exception of the inner city were still gas lights.

Page 704

Kuppelei
German: Procuring, pimping.

Not even if England expects it
Allusion to Nelson's signal at Trafalgar: "England expects that every man will do his duty."

if you turn, you die
Sodom & Gomorrah motif.

Page 705

"He chortles. Bitterly."
A typo ? Should be He chortles. Bitterly. without the quotation marks ?

Buon Pastore
Good Shepherd in Italian.

Semlin
Semlin, German for Zemun, is a major suburb of Belgrade, Serbia. At the time of the novel it belonged to Croatia-Slavonia (within Austria-Hungary), so Theign did not cross the border to Serbia.

Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and largest city of Croatia.

Page 706

pensione
Cf page 578: pensione, a cheap Italian hotel.

Santa Croce
Santa Croce is one of the six sesieri (districts) of Venice. It lies on the opposite side of the Grand Canal to the main railway station of Venice.

Mestre bridge
Mestre is a town in Veneto, northern Italy. Located on the mainland but is connected to Venice by a bridge.

Crotona
Cf page 633: Crotona in Magna Grecia Crotona is a city in southern Italy on the Gulf of Taranto.

Admiralty
Admiralty, before 1964, was the authority in Britain responsible for the command of the Royal Navy.

". . . miniature submarines . . . launched from the bow as if they themselves were torpedoes."
This might refer to the "Ortella", from which - in WW2 - the Italians launched manned topedoes Website

Spezia . . . San Bartolomeo works
Spezia is a city of Liguria, Italy, 56 miles southeast of Genoa. It is the Chief Naval Harbor of Italy since 1861. The entrace is protected by forts while a submarine embankment renders it secure. The establishemnt of San Bartolomeo is exclusively used for electrical works and the manufacture of submarine weapons, especially torpedoes.

Glauco class
Glauco class submarines were built between 1905 - 1909; and they were: Glauco (05), Squalo (06), Narvalo (06), Otaria (08) and Tricheco (09).

"we of the futurity"
Who is speaking from such an omniscient 'future"? If we assume the we of the futurity is the readership, it is also possible to equate us the readers, as voyagers into the past via the novel, with the they who raid the past to support an unsustainable future (our own?), raiders like Ryder Thorn (p. 551 ff, esp. p. 554-5). Which raises questions about the status of the novel itself as a device for time travel/depradation.

Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa
Cf page 529: Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa.

Page 707

Voznab
A typically Russian way of abbreviating a phrase with a lot of syllables.

vozdushnyi nablyudenie
Russian: as translated in the text, but the gender agreement is wrong (should be vozdushnoye).

...they may want you back at the Metternichgasse
This refers most likely to the British Embassy in Vienna which is located at Metternichgasse 6. source, historical photos. As this adress is in the "Embassy-Quarter" of Vienna it could refer to another Embassy (Among others, the Embassies of Germany, Italy and China reside at Metternichgasse as well).

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leics
Ashby-de-la-Zouch is a small market town in the county of Leicestershire, England.

Page 708

unreflective desire
Probably from a translation of Plato's Phaedrus.

Partagas
Brand of cigar; touts itself as "The World's Richest Cigar".

R.U.S.H.
Rush is a Canadian rock band comprising bassist, keyboardist, and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. Rush has become known for the instrumental virtuosity of its members, complex compositions, and eclectic lyrical motifs drawing heavily on science fiction, fantasy, and individualist libertarian philosophy, as well as addressing humanitarian and environmental concerns. Following the deaths of his wife and daughter, Peart embarked on a self-described "healing journey" by motorcycle in which he traveled extensively across North America. He subsequently wrote about his travels in his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. Their 1975 album Caress of Steel contains a track called Under the Shadow [1].

Page 709

the goddes Kali
Hindu goddes Kali of darkness and violence associated with Shiva; but sometimes she was considered as a benevolenet mother-goddess.

Page 710

vecchio fazool
Mock-Italian: old bean.

Santa Lucia Station
Santa Lucia Station is Venice main railway station in the city itself. The other main station (Mestre Station mentioned on page 706) is on the mainland.

Graz
Cf page 519: Graz and Graz

Page 711

the Evidenzbüro
The Military and Counterespionage Organization in Vienna; also called the Combinbed Military Intelligence Agency of Austria. This Washinton Post article, Chapter 1 of a book A Century of Spies, mentioned the Evidenzbüro in "The Czar's Spies" section. (This article also wrote about Sidney Reilly, aka Chong of page 630 ATD, in "Sidney Reilly" section).

Page 712

"history of human emotion"
Ah, wow! Cf. 'range of emotions' earlier.

subfusc
subfusc \sub-FUHSK\, adjective: Dark or dull in color; drab, dusky.

"romance"..in the history of human emotion..showed [with] great trembling through to "a hateful future"
Some connection. The Romantic movement in music/art led to a hateful future?

Hotel Klomser
Colonel Alfred Redl [2] was an Austrian intelligence officer who, when blackmailed by Russian Intelligence because of his homosexual activities, betrayed Austria's entire military plan for Serbia and for general mobilization in case of war with Russia. Caught by his own men, he committed suicide at the Hotel Klomser in 1913[3]. This site comes with photos of what the Hotel Klomser looks like today and a (German) account of the buildings history.

angles of repose
Positions assumed by falling objects at their final eqilibrium point (geological); title and guiding image of a novel by Wallace Stegner, also involving western mining districts.

coffee...ultramodern machines
The description suggests a vacuum coffee pot, at that time popular, though not new. For the historical background, look here.

Feinschmeckerei
German: epicureanism.; being a gourmet.

Page 713

Sachertorte mit Schlag
A world-renowned Viennese cake, here served with whipped cream. The next part of the exchange notes that Schlag also means a blow.

praetorian
Praetorian may mean:

Praetorian Guard, a special force of skilled and celebrated warriors used by Roman Emperors. Praetorian (software), an intelligent surveillance software suite.

Miskolci
Hungarian name derived from the town of Miskolc.

Dracula
Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897 and indeed very popular at that time Wikipedia.

haematophages
Hematophagy is the habit of feeding on blood. There might be a hint at the Catholic eucharist and transsubstantiation, drinking wine as the blood of Jesus; the "subcircuit of the Buda-Pesth telephone exchange" establishes a ritual community, though all religious implications apparently fall away.

first Moroccan crisis
Triggered in 1905 by a visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Morocco. Due to German economical interests, Wilhelm argued for Moroccan independence and thereby affronted France as a colonial power. France immediately got supported by Britain, which weakened Germany's position lastingly Wikipedia.

Page 714

Zentralbad
Was written "Centralbad" back then. A bathing establishment in Viennas Inner City, nowadays the gay sauna "Kaiserbründl". website (the site comes with english "history" and depictions of "Viennese Orientalism" - for German readers the "Presse" section is the most informative regarding the history). It's architecture is said to have influenced director Fritz Lang's movies architecture source

literalism of the hydropathic
This might refer to the fact that the Centralbad - other than most of Vienna‘s Inner City houses since at least 1873, when the water supply main between the alps and the city was accomplished german weblink - still took its water from its own well. This gave rise to quite a few discussions, that the Centralbad‘s water, what with the leaking canalisation system of the city, might be unhealthy. source (German)

Dianabad - Men‘s Steambath ca. 1910

Astarte-Bad... far out on one of the "K" or river-quay lines
No establishment of that name in Vienna as far as the contributor knows. It most likely refers to a bath named after another antique goddess, the "Dianabad" German Wikipedia, though this is/was not located "far out" on the river-quai line, but is just across the "Donaukanal" from Vienna‘s Inner City northwestern corner. According to sources 1 2 the means of public transport surrounding Vienna‘s Inner City beginning on the north (where the "Donaukanal" runs) were indexed with a "K" for "Kai" (quai).

Leclanché cells
A kind of dry-cell battery.

Cosmoline
A brand of petrolatum or petroleum jelly.

Electricity!...the 'elan vital' itself....!
'elan vital' = life force. Ironically thematic?

Beda Chanson‘s "Ausgerechnet Bananen"
Friedrich Löhner-Beda (1883-1942) was one of the most successful Austrian writers of lyrics for popular music and cabarets in the 1920s and early 30s, usually signing as "Beda" weblink. He translated/adapted Frank Silver and Irving Cohn's song "Yes, We Have No Bananas" (released 1923 (!)) into German. While the original makes fun of a fruitshop-owner who cant say "we run out of bananas", Beda's german version is the lamento of a beau/Don Juan about the capricious demands - the fruit being the symbol of the exotic back then and hard to find in Europe - of the adored lady. "Ausgerechnet Bananen" translates as: "Of all things, bananas (Bananas she's asking of me)". english/german lyrics

Yzhitsa
In the pre-1917 Russian alphabet, the last letter (not available in this character set), used in a few Greek-derived words. In present-day Russian it's called izhitsa, but the letter is shaped a little like a Y and may be correctly transliterated so. "To write izhitsa to someone" means to eliminate them.

Page 715

Liebling
German: darling.

Kundschaftsstelle
German: reconnaissance office.

Honigfalle
German: honey trap.

Leo Slezak
Tenor, born in Moravia 1873, performed in Europe and America, died 1946. His son was the actor Walter Slezak. Wikipedia

the Opera House
The Vienna State Opera House, a neo-romantic building, was inaugurated on May 25, 1869 with Mozart's Don Giovanni and rebuilt after World War II. The rebuilt house, seating more than 2,200, reopened on November 5, 1955.

Verbindungsbahn
German: junction line.

Dickwanst . . . Fettarsch
German: potbelly . . . fat-ass.

Favoriten
Vienna‘s 10th district Wikipedia. It is a multi-ethnic, working-class, densely populated area.

huge Socialist demonstrations
1909 - 1911 Vienna‘s Socialist Party organized several huge demonstrations culminating in one against the rapidly increasing prices for meat on September 17, 1911, with 36.000+ participants. Not only police but military as well "observed" the demonstrators, thus increasing their nervosity and aggresivity. Though the partys politicians tried to calm the masses it came to clashes after the demonstration dissolved itself. The military forces chased the participants out of Vienna‘s center back into the outer districts, resulting in three casualities, ninety wounded by the cavallery and 200 busts. website
--plausible, but confusing. This scene is set during the first Moroccan crisis, thus in 1905 or 1906. According to the website you cite, the unrest did not occur until 1911, which would coincide with the second Moroccan crisis.

--I agree: its confusing and I have quite a problem with the timetable throughout this novel. However I dont agree with: "This scene is set during the first Moroccan Crisis." The scene which is set during the first Moroccan Crisis is the one in which Theign came to appreciate the "help" provided by Miskolci (p. 713). Further up on p. 713 we have learned that Cyprian during this very jourmey to Vienna (which eventually will lead him into the turmoils of the huge socialist demonstrations in question here) happens to run into several members of Theigns "praetorian apparatus" which had been put together "over his (Theigns) years on the Vienna station." Miskolci obviously is one such member and TP tells us the story how he became a praetorian during the first Morrocan Crisis - his proposition to help Theign therefore might have happened quite some time - maybe even years - before Cyprian meets Miskolci on p. 715. Whenever the demonstrations take place on the historical timetable, Theign obviously isnt in Vienna (what with having let Cyprian travel to Vienna with the Südbahn alone (p. 710-712)), and the first Morroccan Crisis belongs to the past already. Be it as it may, there have been huge (socialist) demonstrations from 1905 to 07, too: foto That time they demonstrated for a reform of the electoral law 1 2 several times, which massively favored priests, high ranking officials and military, hugescale landlords etc.. With some success: 1907, for the first time, all males of 24+ yrs. were allowed to vote and their ballott was worth the same for poor and privileged. No records of police/military excesses during these demonstrations I could find on the web, though.

the Ringstrasse
The Ringstrasse is a circula road surrounding the Innere Stadt (Inner City) district of Vienna. The Opera House of Vienna is located here.

return of the repressed
A psychoanalytic term, from Freud himself in which our refusal to honour or recognise an impulse--usually the sexual impulse-- does not drive the impulse away. It returns in a dehumanised way, transformed into something wild and destructive. Here, applied to marching working-class men and women, the psychoanalytic meaning merges with the social meaning, it seems": 'the oppressed'

Page 716

Czerny's School of Velocity
Music students' exercise book; velocity is of course a term in calculating a vector.
Carl Czerny (1791-1857), an Austrain piano teacher and composer. Remebered as the most famous piano student of Beethoven, he developed a reputation as one of the most significant piano teachers of the 19th Century. His pupils included Thalberg, Liszt and Heller, and his pedagogical works had and continue to have wide currency.

Mariahilf
An Austrian hotel located closed to the main railway station, Westbahnhof.

Snazzbury's Silent Frock
Cf page 500: Snazzbury & Silent Frock.

Both offices
The Okhrana, Russian secret police, and the Kundschaftsstelle, Austrian security agency.

Page 717

the Japanese war, rebellions up and down the rail lines.
Cf page 595: Japanese won & In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines.

Volks-Prater
Inside the (Vienna) Prater, there an area closest to the city center contains a large amusement park known as Volksprater (People's Prater) at its entrance there is the Giant (Ferris) Wheel.

Venedig in Wien
Venice in Vienna. A theme park in Volks-Prater, was opened in May 1895. Alpha Index

the Doge's Palace
Located next to the Piazza San Marco, the Doge's Palace is one of the most famous sites in Venice. This is the home and offices of the Doges of Venice. See Doge's Palace Photo.

the Ca' d'Oro
The Ca' d'Oro (the Golden House) is one of the most beautiful palazzos on the Grand Canal in Venice. It was built between 1428 to 1430 for the Contarini family. In 1922 it was bequeathed to the State by its last owner. It is now open to the public as a gallery.

Hypatia
Hypatia Ca. 370-415, Alexandrian mathematician, murdered by a Christian sect.

Page 718

regulars at Dobner‘s on the day it closed its doors (1909)

Colney Hatch
Cf page 239: Colney Hatch
Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (or Friern Hospital) was a hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. It was in operation from 1851 to 1993. At its height the asylum was home to 3,500 mental patients and had the longest corridor in Britain, and hence, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any mental institution [4].

Dobner

Dobner at Getreidemarkt Nr.1 ca. 1900

Getreidemarkt
German: grain market. The street separating Vienna‘s 1st ("Inner City") and 6th ("Mariahilf") district.

Szekszárdi Vörös
Red wine from the Szekszárd region of Hungary.

Gewürztraminer
White wine from Alsace. Not necessarily so, but most of it traditionally is produced there. It‘s origin is North Eastern Italy (the village of Tramin in Alto-Aldige) Wikipedia

a white cloth bag of tarhonya from the previous century
Tarhonya are tiny pellets of dried pasta, a popular and well-storable ingredient in Hungarian country cooking.

the Anglo-Russian Entente
Cf page 618: the Anglo-Russian Entente.

Romanoffs
Also spelled Romanovs, the last imperial dynasty of Russia, which ruled the country from 1613 to 1917.

Page 719

Otzovist
Cf page 616: Otzovists.

Bolshies
Bolshevists or Bolsheviks. Cf page 616: Bolshevists.

Mrs. Burchell
Cf page 228: Mrs. Burchell.

Serbian outrage
Sarajevo Outrage of June 28, 1914? On that day, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were shot to death in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb. This event was supposed has been predicted by Mrs. Burchell.

nervnost'
Russian: edginess.

Page 720

"Monsieur Azeff"
Yevno Fishelevich Azeff (1869-1918), Social Revolutionary provocateur and terrorist; in hiding outside Russia after 1908.

Socialist Revolutionary
Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) was a Russian political party established in 1901. It, not Lenin's Bolsheviks, played a major role in Russian 1905 Revolution (of page 595) and the 1917 February Revolution in which the Tsar regime was overthrown. The SR leader Kerensky was the Prime Minister of the new Russian Government. After Lenin's October coup the SRs faded even though in the only democratic election held in 1918 after the Soviet came to power the SRs gained 57% of the popular vote as opposed to Bolsheviks' 25%. Lenin just dsbanded the newly elected Constituent Assembly by force and arrested all those delegates who did not follow Lenin's policy. Many SRs fought against the Soviet in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921).

darázsfészek
Hungarian: literally, wasps' nest. A rolled, filled pastry with almonds.

Dobos torte
Several thin layers of sponge cake and chocolate cream, topped with a hard caramel glaze.

Rigó Jancsi
A chocolate sponge cake with chocolate mousse filling. Named after a virtuoso Magyar Gypsy violinist, who made the headlines when he ran away with the American wife of the Belgian Duke of Chimay.

Váci út
A street name; the second word is Hungarian: road.

Angel's Field
Angyalföld in Hungarian, a working-class neighbourhood in northern Budapest.

Page 721

Spittelberg today

Spittelberggaße
should be Spittelberggasse. The Spittelberg has been a redlight district within Vienna‘s 7th district ("Neubau") for centuries (until about 1960). It is said that Giacomo Casanova enjoyed himself and a few ladies there. After renovations started in the early 1980‘s it‘s a place for the urban rich today.

...the limitless civic passion for window-shopping
Two quotes from this article on director Fritz Lang‘s youth in Vienna: 1. "... to visit three of the most notorious spots on Spittelberg, regarded as an immoral part of town. "Spittelberg," as Lang put it, "was not a Berg [mountain] at all, it's just that one of the streets was called that. This was where girls with exposed breasts lay in street-level windows and invited passersby to a visit with the most obvious gestures." This was Lang's first "Scarlet Street."" 2. " The family enjoyed distinctly Viennese activities, such as the promenade past elegant shop windows in the late afternoon. Lang remembered the men in their frock coats and toppers, the military clicking of heels, the corseted women with furs and boatlike hats. Idly gazing into shop windows--kicking one in, in Rancho Notorious--became ritual behavior in Lang's films. Two of his finest Hollywood dramas, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street, begin, with deceptive innocence, with window-shopping."

catamite
A boy kept for purposes of sexual perversion. (Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary)

Page 722

high-tessitura dismay
Italian tessitura (literally "texture") means the way a vocal part "lies." High tessitura means sustained singing in a high register. The phrase here means screaming or shrieking.

bora
An occasional violent cold north to northeast wind that blows over the northern Adriatic from the interior highlands. (Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary)

Ma signori, um po' di moderazione, per piacere
Italian: Sirs, a little moderation, if you please.

Annotation Index