„Криминальный гений“ и его кот

[tes3m]

И это не Блофельд.

Доктор Антонио Никола и Аполлион, персонажи Гая Будби* (1867 – 1905). Следующая картинка мне не очень нравится, но именно она привлекла мое внимание к этой паре.

Черно-белые иллюстрации того же художника (Стэнли Ллевелина Вуда) мне нравятся больше. Кстати, его доктор Никола (Будби дал ему такую фамилию в честь Теслы**) часто напоминает мне Шерлока Холмса.

+4

"...an enormous cat, black as the Pit of Tophet, sprang with a bound upon the table and stood there steadfastly regarding me, its eyes flashing and its back arched. I have seen cats without number, Chinese, Persian, Manx, the Australian wild cat, and the English tabby, but never in the whole course of my existence such another as that owned by Dr. Nikola. When it had regarded me with its evil eyes for nearly a minute, it stepped daintily across to its master, and rubbed itself backwards and forwards against his arm, then to my astonishment it clambered up on to his shoulder and again gave me the benefit of its fixed attention. Dr. Nikola must have observed the amazement depicted in my face, for he smiled in a curious fashion, and coaxing the beast down into his lap fell to stroking its fur with his long, white fingers" (A Bid for Fortune: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta).

* Guy Boothby. В русских переводах его называли еще "Бусби" и "Бутби", а я остановилась на варианте из "Словаря английских фамилий" Рыбакина: "BOOTHBY ... Будби/топон. Boothby (Линкольншир)".
** Note that the name could be Italian if only the ‘c’ replaced the ‘k’ – ‘Nicola’ – and the stress fell on the second, not the first syllable (cf. also Introduction). Boothby claimed that the villain’s name had been inspired to him by that of the famous scientist Nikola Tesla, whom he erroneously considered to be Italian (may this throw further light on his choice to make his Dr. Nikola Italian?) – ‘The name [...] was suggested to me one day in the train by seeing the name of Nicolo [sic!] Tesla, the Italian electrician, in a public print.’ Cf. HYDE. ‘The Creator of “Dr. Nikola,” 131 (Emilio Zampieri: Guy Boothby: The "Dr. Nikola" Novels. (Dissertation, Universita degli studi di Padova, p. 133))".

@темы: викторианцы, иллюстрации

Comments

[Ниротэн]

Какой интересный и эффектный джентльмен на чёрно-белых иллюстрациях. На последней у него такие глаза большие...

[tes3m]

Ниротэн, Ага, и художник при этом следует описаниям из книг.)

[Ниротэн]

Вот такие глаза у него на последней.)

[tes3m]

Ниротэн,

[amethyst deceiver]

tes3m,

часто напоминает мне Шерлока Холмса

похож, похож )))) Холмс и Мориарти в одном флаконе ))))

[tes3m]

amethyst deceiver, Точно, его с ними обоими и сравнивают.

[myowlet]

ой, мамочки, только что заметила, как шкура тигра косится на происходящее)

[tes3m]

myowlet, Да уж, будто недостаточно, что кот злобно уставился на гостя.)

[myowlet]

tes3m,
банда пушистых, ага

[Неуловимый Джа]

Это что же, первый в истории случай злодея с котом? ))

[tes3m]

cuppa_tea, Кажется, да.)) У другого злодея Будби, Фароса-египтянина, была обезьянка. У злодея Сакса Ромера, Фу Манчу, тоже была обезьянка, мармозетка. Она сидела у него на плече, как Аполлион у Николы, но в мармозетку на плече легче поверить, они маленькие, а большой кот мог бы сидеть на плече у Портоса, но не у человека, о котором автор все время пишет, что тот "very slim" и "most slenderly built".

[Неуловимый Джа]

tes3m, да уж, котик на плече - тушка еще та ))
Мне пару раз попадались в фильмах окошаченные злодеи, не вспомню, кто.
И Спок из оригинального "Стар Трека" (хоть и не злодей) тоже засветился с черным котом.

[Неуловимый Джа]

cuppa_tea, а! Не было ли кота у Брандауэра из фильма про Бонда?

[tes3m]

А вообще доктор Никола показался мне не совсем суперзлодеем вроде Блофельда. По-моему, он находится где-то посередине между такими злодеями и персонажами вроде графа Монте-Кристо и капитана Немо. У меня такое впечатление после того, как я прочитала последний роман из пяти, посвященных ему. Я читала еще первый, а остальные знаю лишь по пересказам.

[tes3m]

Не было ли кота у Брандауэра из фильма про Бонда?

Ты имеешь в виду Брандауэра в «Никогда не говори „никогда“»? Нет, кот был не у него.)) Он же играл Ларго, а кот был, как положено, у Блофельда, которого в этом фильме играл Макс фон Зюдов.

[Неуловимый Джа]

tes3m, ну, хотя бы с фильмом не ошиблась ))
Я так и подумала, что др Никола выглядит фриком, но в нем нет ничего особенно зловещего.

[tes3m]

cuppa_tea, Ну да, он, по-моему, хотя и преступник, но скорее антигерой, чем злодей. Даже ни разу никого не убил, только пугал.

[amethyst deceiver]

Книжки милые. Я пробежалась по 1, 4 и 5 (всего 5), мне понравилось. Внимательно читать буду уже по порядку )))

Никола и Аполлион друг друга очень любят и сцены между ними порой ужасно трогательные. Вот, например, как рассказчик описывает прощание Николы с котом перед отъездом:

As the servant left the room my curious friend gave a strange whistle. Next moment the black cat came trotting in, sprang on her master's knee and crawled up onto his shoulder. Nikola looked at me and smiled.
"He will not forget me if I am away five years," he said. "What wife would be so constant?"
I laughed; the idea of Nikola and matrimony somehow did not harmonize very well. He lifted the cat down and placed him on the table.
"Apollyon," said he, with the only touch of regret I saw him show throughout the trip, "we have to part for a year. Good-bye, old cat, good-bye."
Then having stroked the animal gently once or twice he turned briskly to me.
"Come along," he said; "let us be off. Time presses."
The cat sat on the table watching him and appearing to understand every word he uttered. Nikola stroked its fur for the last time, and then walked out of the room. I followed at his heels and together we passed into the compound.

Или вот:
He [Никола] held out his hand to me, and as I shook it. Apollyon came up, and rubbed himself against my leg, as if to show that he too appreciated my sympathy.

И еще:
With a bound that was not unlike the spring of a tiger, an enormous cat, black as the Pit of Tophet, jumped from the room, and, approaching his master, rubbed himself backwards and forwards against his legs. Seeing my astonishment, Nikola condescended to explain.
"You are going to say, I can tell, that you have never seen such a cat as Apollyon. I don't suppose you have. If he could talk, he would be able to tell some strange stories; would you not, old man? He has been my almost constant companion for many years, and more than once he has been the means of saving my life."
Replacing Apollyon, whom he had picked up, on the floor, he conducted me towards the entrance of another corridor...

А иногда Николу даже сравнивают с его котом или он сам это делает ))))

As Nikola said this, his great cat, which for the past few moments had been sitting upon his knees, suddenly stood up, and, placing its forepaws upon the table, scratched at the cloth. Nikola was watching my face, and what he saw there must have considerably amused him.
"You are thinking that Apollyon and I are not unlike. When we get out our claws, we are dangerous. ..."

Или вот смешной момент, когда один из персонажей сравнивает Николу с демоном Аполлионом, но мы же знаем, что так зовут его кота ))))

"Who he is I can no more tell you than I can fly. But if he is not the first cousin of the Old Gentleman himself, well, all I can say is, I'm no hand at finding relationships."
"I am afraid that doesn't tell me very much," I answered. "What's he like to look at?"
"Well, in appearance he might be described as tall, though you must not run away with the idea that he's what you would call a big man. On the contrary, he is most slenderly built. Anything like the symmetry of his figure, however, I don't remember to have met with before. His face is clean shaven, and is always deadly pale, a sort of toad-skin pallor, that strikes you directly when you see him and the remembrance of which never leaves you again. His eyes and hair are as black as night, and he is as neat and natty as a new pin. When he is watching you he seems to be looking through the back of your head into the wall behind, and when he speaks you've just got to pay attention, whether you want to or not. All things considered, the less I see of him the better I shall like him."
"You don't give me a very encouraging report of my new employer. What on earth can he want with me?"
"He's Apollyon himself," laughed Barkston...

А что-то от его кота передается Николе, видимо — "...he said, licking his lips in that peculiar cat-like fashion I had noticed in London..." )))))

[amethyst deceiver]

Вот еще забавный момент про кота:

"One becomes aware of many strange things in the East," said Nikola, hugging his knee and looking at me over the top of it, "and yet that little circumstance I have just referred to is apt to teach one how much one might know, and how small after all our knowledge is of each other's lives. One could almost expect as much from brute beasts."

"I am afraid I don't quite follow you," I said simply.

"Don't you?" he answered. "And yet it is very simple after all. Let me give you a practical illustration of my meaning. If you see anything in it other than I intend, the blame must be upon your own head."

Upon a table close to his chair lay a large sheet of white paper. This he placed upon the floor. He then took a stick of charcoal in his hand and presently uttered a long and very peculiar whistle. Next moment, without any warning, an enormous cat, black as his master's coat, leapt down from somewhere on to the floor, and stood swishing his tail before us.

"There are some people in the world," said Nikola calmly, at the same time stroking the great beast's soft back, "who would endeavour to convince you that this cat is my familiar spirit, and that, with his assistance, I work all sorts of extraordinary magic. You, of course, would not be so silly as to believe such idle tales. But to bear out what I was saying just now let us try an experiment with his assistance. It is just possible I may be able to tell you something more of your life."

Here he stooped and wrote a number of figures up to ten with the charcoal upon the paper, duplicating them in a line below. He then took the cat upon his knee, stroked it carefully, and finally whispered something in its ear. Instantly the brute sprang down, placed its right fore-paw on one of the numerals of the top row, while, whether by chance or magic I cannot say, it performed a similar action with its left on the row below.

"Twenty-four," said Nikola, with one of his peculiar smiles.

Then taking the piece of charcoal once more in his hand, and turning the paper over, he wrote upon it the names of the different months of the year. Placing it on the floor he again said something to the cat, who this time stood upon June. The alphabet followed, and letter by letter the uncanny beast spelt out "Apia."

"On the 24th June," said Nikola, "of a year undetermined you were in Apia. Let us see if we can discover the year."

Again he wrote the numerals up to ten, and immediately the cat, with fiendish precision, worked out 1895.

"Is that correct?" asked this extraordinary person when the brute had finished its performance.

It was quite correct, and I told him so.

"I'm glad of that. And now do you want to know any more?" he asked. "If you wish it I might perhaps be able to tell you your business there."

I did not want to know. And I can only ask you to believe that I had very good reasons for not doing so. Nikola laughed softly, and pressed the tips of his long white fingers together as he looked at me.

"Now tell me truthfully what you think of my cat?" said he.

"One might be excused if one endowed him with Satanic attributes," I answered.

"And yet, though you think it so wonderful, it is only because I have subjected him to a curious form of education. There is a power latent in animals, and particularly in cats, which few of us suspect. And if animals have this power, how much more may men be expected to possess it. ...

[tes3m]

amethyst deceiver, Огромное спасибо! Про кота — так мило!))))
А я пока прочитала только первую и последнюю книгу, причем больше мне понравилась последняя.

[amethyst deceiver]

tes3m, кот совершенно замечательный ))))
В 1-3, как я поняла, больше adventures и беготни, а 3-4 гораздо статичнее )

[tes3m]

amethyst deceiver,

а 3-4 гораздо статичнее

Ты имеешь в виду 4-5?
Кстати, мне понравилось, как его изобразили на той обложке 1950-х, которую ты мне показывала (особенно в сравнении с современными обложками).

[amethyst deceiver]

tes3m,

Ты имеешь в виду 4-5?

Ой, да, конечно, у меня опечатка была.

особенно в сравнении с современными обложками

Оооо, современные в большинстве своем — это что-то жуткое. Я искала в Сети, чтобы купить на бумаге, всякого насмотрелась Когда попадались нейтральные картинки (птички, цветы, абстракции), еще ладно, а вот когда с человеческими фигурами — у меня возникали серьезные сомнения, что иллюстраторы вообще читали книгу Из современных двухтомное издание Leonaur хвалят, я его и заказала в итоге. Художник хотя бы книжку читал, хотя и не очень внимательно — о чем свидетельствует сквадраченная челюсть

[tes3m]

amethyst deceiver,

современные в большинстве своем — это что-то жуткое

Именно. Одна обложка возмутила какого-то читателя, написавшего отзыв на роман на Амазоне, так что он тоже написал, что иллюстратор явно не читал романов. А я думаю, что он мог перепутать доктора Николу с доктором Мабузо, которого изображали немолодым, лысым и толстым — а именно такого доктора изобразили на той обложке. Читатель напомнил, что Николе всего 33, он строен и хорош собой.

Из современных двухтомное издание Leonaur хвалят

Да, и обложка у них приличная (в сравнении со многими другими).

[amethyst deceiver]

tes3m,

мог перепутать доктора Николу с доктором Мабузе, которого изображали немолодым, лысым и толстым — а именно такого доктора изобразили на той обложке

Вполне себе может быть.

Одна обложка возмутила какого-то читателя, написавшего отзыв на роман на Амазоне, так что он тоже написал, что иллюстратор явно не читал романов.

Это про ту обложку, где упитанный пожилой "доктор" в очках и с саквояжем, или "Эксперимент д-ра Николы", где безумного вида старый бородатый "профессор" с пробиркой в руке?

[tes3m]

amethyst deceiver,

про ту обложку, где упитанный пожилой "доктор" в очках и с саквояжем

Про эту.)) Я перепутала: не на Амазоне, а на Goodreads: "The cover is completely mis-representative, he is not small, chubby and old but is in his mid thirties, tall, thin, has pale skin and jet black hair and eyes that seem as if they can bear right into your soul" (из первого отзыва по ссылке).
www.goodreads.com/book/show/6581369-dr-nikola

безумного вида старый бородатый "профессор" с пробиркой в руке?

А это вообще какой-то стереотипный Безумный ученый.)))

[amethyst deceiver]

tes3m, ну вот тот стереотипный "врач", этот

стереотипный Безумный ученый

))))) В первом случае иллюстратор, судя по всему, зацепился за слово "доктор" в названии, во втором — за "эксперимент" ))))))))