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List,
I know you have had an inconclusive running discussion regarding who these characters may be. Since just about all of the many apparent allusions in BOTNS are rather easily identifiable, I'm hoping that someone can identify these characters, too:
in Chapter 21 of SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, in the Jungle Garden of the Botanic Garden, Severian and Agia enter a jungle tree hut containing two apparently early-twentieth-century characters and a native named Insangoma. The other characters are a husband and wife named Robert and Marie. Robert is also a former art student in Paris and appears to have malaria. (In reference to your earlier musings, the malaria may account for Robert's ability to see S & A.) But who are these people?
--Don Palumbo</html>