GR V 3 iron queen

[Clément Lévy]

Dear all, and especially Ya Sam and Keith, who quickly gave me some clues
about the problem of these "girders old as an iron queen" on GR's first page
(a iron queen-size bed, Queen Victoria, Persephone),
I went back into the Archive and found out that the problem had already so
much been discussed, so recently as november 2006, and a long time ago. Some
British readers of the novel seem to see a direct allusion here to Victoria
Station, which is also coherent. For the polysemy, I should keep the term in
French just as it is in English, reine de fer. I am not beginning a new
translation, but trying to avoid using the terrible and published
translation (Michel Doury, Paris, Seuil, 1988) in my work on the novel. I
like the possible allusions to underworld and sleep (remember Prentice is
sleeping in a bachelor's bed, a cot that could let him want a wider bed,
even during his sleep!).
Thank you then,
Clement
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