The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated (63 page)

342
: for “coincidences,” see
A key (342!)
and
342
.

A lady who lived opposite
: and she is subsequently referred to as “Miss Opposite” on pp. 52 ff.

suburban dog
: a foreshadowing of Charlotte Haze’s death, for Mr. Beale will run over her when he swerves to avoid hitting what may well be this dog (see
here
). See also
Keys
, p. 6.

van Gogh
: the “Arlésienne” (1888) is a famous portrait of a woman from the town of Aries in Provence, by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). Mass-produced reproductions of it are quite popular in America. H.H.’s low opinion of van Gogh is shared by other Nabokov characters. In
Pnin
, the art teacher Lake thinks “That van Gogh is second-rate and Picasso supreme, despite his commercial foibles” (p. 96); and Victor Wind acknowledges “with a nod of ironic recognition” a framed reproduction of van Gogh’s “La Berceuse” (p. 108).

Marlene Dietrich
: see
Lola
. Also
here
and
here
.

René Prinet
: “The Kreutzer Sonata” was dedicated by Beethoven to Rodolphe Kreutzer in 1805 (Nabokov intended no allusion to Tolstoy’s story of that name). Prinet’s painting (1898) has long illustrated the Tabu perfume advertisement found in
The New Yorker
and chic ladies’ magazines. It shows, in Nabokov’s words, an “ill-groomed girl pianist rising like a wave from her stool after completing the duo, and being kissed
by a hirsute violinist. Very unappetizing and clammy, but has ‘camp’ charm.” For a scented version, see and smell
Glamour
, December 1990, p. 49.

Riviera love … over dark glasses
: the confluence of sunglasses and H.H.’s Riviera love suggest that H.H. has stumbled upon a veritable Lost-and-Found Department (see
lost pair of sunglasses
).

fairy-tale
: see
not human, but nymphic
and
Percy Elphinstone
.

“
Roches Roses
”
: the “
red rocks.
” See
Aubrey McFate … devil of mine
. Both H.H.’s and Poe’s “Annabel Lee” are alluded to on this and the next page.

nouvelle
: French; new one. For the literary importance of “this Lolita,
my
Lolita, see
the writer’s ancient lust
.

mummery
: the performance of an actor in a dumb show;
mummer
is obsolete slang for a play-actor.

fruit vert
: “green fruit”; French (dated) slang for “ ‘unripe’ females attractive to ripe gentlemen,” noted Nabokov.

Au fond, ça m’est bien égal
: French; “Really, I don’t care at all.”

en escalier
: set-up in an oblique typography; French for “staircase style.”

Blank … Blankton, Mass.
: there is no such town. The “blanks” make fun of the “authenticity” of the pages of both the diary and the entire novel, H.H.’s “photographic memory” notwithstanding. Thus
Lolita
’s parodic design also includes the literary journal or diary. Nabokov regarded with profound skepticism the possibilities of complete autobiographical revelation. “Manifold self-awareness” (as he calls it in
Speak, Memory
) is not to be achieved through solemn introspection, certainly not through the diarist’s compulsive egotism, candid but totally self-conscious self-analysis, carefully created “honesty,” willful irony, and studied self-deprecation. Nabokov burlesqued the literary diary as far back as 1934. Near the end of
Despair
, Hermann’s first-person narrative “degenerates into a diary”—“the lowest form of literature” (p. 208)—and this early parody is fully realized in
Lolita
, especially in the present chapter. For more on the confessional mode, see
Dostoevskian grin
.

phoenix
: a legendary bird represented by the ancient Egyptians as living for five or six centuries, being consumed in fire by its own act, and then rising from its ashes; an emblem of resurrection and immortality.

sebum
: the material secreted by the sebaceous glands.

Humbert le Bel
: Humbert the Fair; a kingly epithet (e.g., Charles le Bel of France).

entrée
: appearance on a stage; grand entrance.

favonian
: of or pertaining to the west wind; thus, gentle.

phocine
: pertaining to the zoological sub-family which includes the common seal, the image against which H.H. measures “the seaside of [Lolita’s] schoolgirl thighs”—an allusion to the lost “kingdom” of Annabel (see
Lo-lee-ta
).

Priap
: son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, Priapus was the Greco-Roman god of procreation and fertility, usually portrayed in a manly state. Also mentioned
here
,
here
, and less mythically,
here
. See
Dolores
.

predator … prey
: H.H. often characterizes himself as a predator, most often as an ape or spider (prominent among the butterfly’s natural enemies). For further discussion, see my 1967
Wisconsin Studies
article,
op. cit.
, pp. 222 and 228.

stippled
: engraved, by means of dots rather than lines; in painting, refers to the use of small touches which coalesce to produce gradations of light and shade. See
stippled Hopkins
.

Delectatio morosa … dolors
: Latin; morose pleasure, a monastic term. In the next sentence, as on p. 53, H.H. toys with the Latin etymology of “Dolores” (see
Dolores
).

Our Glass Lake
: see
Hourglass Lake … spelled
.

nacreous
: having a pearly iridescence.

Virginia … Edgar
: Poe was born January 19, 1809. He was therefore twenty-seven when in 1836 he married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, who died of a lingering disease in 1847. She was the inspiration for many of his poems. For his first conjugal night with
Lolita, H.H. appropriately registers as “Edgar” (see
Dr. Edgar H. Humbert and daughter
). He also employs the name
here
and
here
(see also
Keys
, p. 37). Nabokov told me that he originally intended to call Lolita “Virginia” and title the book
Ginny.
For a summary of the Poe allusions, see
Lo-lee-ta
.

Je m’imagine cela
: French; I can imagine that.

“
Monsieur Poe-poe
”
: H.H. puns on “poet,” but the schoolboy had in mind “
popo
” (or “
popotin
”), French slang for the posterior.

resemble … actor chap
: Clare Quilty. They
do
resemble one another. For a summary of Quilty allusions, see
Quilty, Clare
.

nictating
:
rare
; winking.

“
ne montrez pas vos zhambes
”
: French; “don’t show your legs” (
jambes
is misspelled to indicate an American accent). See
ne montrez pas vos zhambes
.

à mes heures
: French; when in the right mood.

lady writer
: H.H.’s characterization and caricature are
not
“sexist.” He’s referring to the kind of deathless trite prose long produced by women
for
women (e.g., the Harlequin romances, whose male authors adopt female pseudonyms to be “credible”).

the writer’s ancient lust
: H.H. sees himself in a line descending from the great Roman love poets, and he frequently imitates their locutions. The intonational stresses of “
this
Lolita,
my
Lolita” are borrowed from a donnish English translation of a Latin poem (see [P
ART
O
NE
]
c11.1
,
c15.1
, [P
ART
T
WO
]
c01.1
,
c29.1
,
c29.2
,
c35.1
). H.H.’s “ancient” models include Propertius (c. 50–16
B.C.
) on Cynthia, Tibullus (c. 55–19
B.C.
) on Delia, and Horace (65–8
B.C.
) on any of the sixteen women to whom he wrote poems. See
my Lolita
.

Our Glass Lake
: a “mistake”; see
Hourglass Lake … spelled
.

“
Little Carmen
”
: a pun: little [train]men, or “Dwarf Conductors” (see also
Keys
, p. 144n). The allusions to
Carmen
have nothing to do with Bizet’s opera. They refer only to the novella (1845) by Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870). For a pun on his name, see
Merrymay, Pa.… my Carmen
. Like H.H., José Lizzarrabengoa, Carmen’s abandoned and ill-fated lover (see
José Lizzarrabengoa
), tells his story from prison (but not until the third chapter, when the narrative frame is withdrawn). The story of love, loss, and revenge is appropriate. The
Carmen
allusions also serve as a trap for the sophisticated reader who is misled into believing that H.H., like José, will murder his treacherous Carmen; see
here
, where H.H. springs the trap. H.H. quotes
Mérimée (
Est-ce que … Carmen
,
Changeons … séparés
,
Carmen … moi
) and frequently calls Lolita “Carmen,” the traditional name of a bewitching woman ([P
ART
O
NE
]
c13.1
,
c13.2
,
c13.3
, [P
ART
T
WO
]
c22.1
,
c22.2
,
c24.1
,
c29.1
,
c29.2
). Carl R. Proffer discusses the
Carmen
allusions in
Keys
, pp. 43–51. In Latin,
carmen
means song, poetry, and charm. “
My charmin’, my Carmen
,” says H.H., thus demonstrating that he knows its etymology and original English meaning: the chanting of a verse having magic power; “to bewitch, enchant, subdue by magic power.” See
not human, but nymphic
. H.H. calls himself “an enchanted hunter,” takes Lolita to the hotel of that name, speaks of an “
enchanted island of time
”, and so forth. Nabokov told his lecture classes at Cornell that a great writer was at once a storyteller, a teacher, and, most supremely, an enchanter. See
The Enchanted Hunters
.

I shot … said
:
Ah.’
: a prevision of Quilty’s death; see
shooting her lover … making him say “akh!”
and
a feminine
.

Pisky
: “Pixie”; see
Percy Elphinstone
. The town is invented. Also means “moth” in rural England. For entomological allusions, see
John Ray, Jr.
.

le mot juste
: French; the right word; a phrase made famous by the French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), who often took a week to find
le mot juste.
For other allusions to Flaubert, see
nous connûmes
,
Miss Emperor
, and
Never will Emma rally … timely tear
.

Ronsard’s “la vermeillette fente”
: Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585), the greatest poet of the French Renaissance. H.H. alludes to a sonnet entitled
L.M.F.
, and its first line, “
Je te salue, o vermeillette fante
” (“
fente
” is the modern spelling): “I salute [or hail] you, oh little red slit” (“
Blason du sexe feminin
,” Edition Pléiade, II, 775). A “
Blason
” is a short poem in praise or criticism of a certain subject. For another allusion to Ronsard, see
adolori … langueur
. During his émigré period in Germany in the twenties and early thirties, Nabokov published Russian translations of many of the writers alluded to by H.H., including Ronsard, Verlaine, Byron, Keats, Baudelaire, Shakespeare, Rimbaud, Goethe, Pushkin, Carroll, and Romain Rolland.

Remy Belleau’s “un petit … escarlatte”
: Belleau (1528–1577), Ronsard’s colleague in the Pléiade group, also writes a “
blason
” in praise of the external female genitalia; “the hillock velveted with delicate moss, / traced in the middle with a little scarlet thread [labia].” For obvious reasons, the poem is rarely anthologized and is difficult to find. It appears in the Leyden reprint (1865) of the rare anthology
Recueil de pièces choisies rassemblées par les soins du cosmopolite
, duc d’Aiguillon, éd. (1735). The Cornell Library owns a copy, noted Nabokov.

of my darling … my bride
: line 39 of Poe’s “Annabel Lee.” See
Lo-lee-ta
for the poem.

Mystery of the Menarche
: the menarche is the initial menstrual period. In Ireland it is called “The Curse of the Irish.”

kill in my dreams
: another prevision of Quilty’s
death scene
.

toothbrush mustache
: Quilty has
one too
. Poe also had one, but Nabokov said that no allusion was intended here.

ape-ear
: H.H. several times characterizes himself this way. See
here
for a most resonant ape image.

coltish subteens … (all New England for a lady-writer’s pen!)
: this diary entry opens with a burst of cheap-fiction clichés—prose as ready-made as “the black ready-made bow and bobby pins holding [Lo’s] hair in place.” H.H.’s dead language and reference to a colt sets-up a parenthetical echo of the battlefield lamentation of Richard III when his horse is slain: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” (
Richard III
, V, iv, 19). Shakespeare, the king of English, is deposed and truly in parentheses at this turn of
Lolita
, hemmed-in by the stock epithets of “a lady writer.” For Shakespeare, see
God or Shakespeare
.