Vladimir Nabokov: Look at the Harlequins!

[Peder]

Thanks Peder, I was worried i was misinterpreting things.
I shall now wait for your posts,

Oh Gem, and anyone,
Please don't wait; contribute as you read; all misinterpretations very welcome
We grade our own papers here anyway, so there are no wrong answers.
And I think Nabokov himself was in fact a lenient grader, so let's just continue that tradition (correct or not )
And now for the first coffee of the day, and 15 or so pages more.
I'll be listenin, no need to whisper,
Peder

 

[Peder]

Suddenly, with about 50 pages to go, I can feel it coming!
I think yet another one of Nabokov's novels is going to knock me down and leave me dead flat on the floor dying.
Had to take a break at that point, before plunging onward.

Meanwhile, who is Vadim?
A first trial answer is emerging.

Gathering up strength for the next push.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Being the weak human that I am, I fell asleep last night and failed to progress too much.......

But gosh it was wonderful getting a good nights rest!

 

[Peder]

But gosh it was wonderful getting a good nights rest!

Backsliding at it's worst!
Meanwhile, I have pressed on.

 

[Peder]

Toes! it is.
.........

 

[pontalba]

Toes! it is.
.........

​

​

 

[Peder]

What else can I say?
I loved the ending!

SPOILER, can't peek!
Finally, maybe, the Nabokovian version of the happy ending I have always been looking for.

Completely melted,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

ALREADY ??

 

[Peder]

Excellent Pontalba! Hilarious!!!!!
ROTFALOLTIC!
Never saw that before!
But please, no heart attacks! We need every one.
Peder

 

[Gem]

Pontalba,

What are you doing playing here? Get back to your reading young lady.

Peder,

Suddenly, with about 50 pages to go, I can feel it coming!

At first, Harlequins didn't reel me in and keep me hooked the way Lolita did, or make me marvel or get frustrated like S.Knight did. I thought this looks to be a more quiet read, and nor bursting at the seams like the others. By the end I realised it had reeled me in so craftily that I hadn't even realised that I was caught.

 

[Peder]

By the end I realised it had reeled me in so craftily that I hadn't even realised that I was caught.

Gem,
Me too! Definitely!
Another book that one is sorry to have end.
I'm trying to figure out what to call it, but I don't think this one is going to fit into the mold of a five-act drama as we have seen before. More simply like a straight fictional biography, would you say?
peder

 

[Gem]

Peder,

I'm trying to figure out what to call it, but I don't think this one is going to fit into the mold of a five-act drama as we have seen before. More simply like a straight fictional biography, would you say?

Yes, it did feel like a straight fictional biography, I didn't feel any dramatic elements. The biography element felt strong simply because IMO the characters were done so brilliantly, even the minor characters were so well rounded out.

I had no clue until the last chapter that

Spoiler

Vadim had been narrating the entire story at the age of 71.

 

[Peder]

Right, it doesn't (seem to) have the complexity of his other works, but there are still some wrinkles that take ironing out, that I missed. So after this small breather I'm going to get back to due diligence and start rereading, or at least re-skimming, to try to get things into proper place. Plus count all his wives and make sure he has the number right!
Peder

 

[Gem]

Peder,

There are always wrinkles to iron out. I have only read two of his other works, but I can see why you would say that this one does not have as much complexity. Do you think that Nabokov did kept it simple (or rather simpler than the others )deliberately?

 

[Peder]

Peder,

There are always wrinkles to iron out. I have only read two of his other works, but I can see why you would say that this one does not have as much complexity. Do you think that Nabokov did kept it simple (or rather simpler than the others )deliberately?

Gem,
I don't know for sure. But it seems to me there are quite a few things different about it, so in general I think yes he was deliberately trying to write something different (again). I've been trying to just go over the story in my head to see what settles out as memorable to think about. For one thing it seems to me that Vadim writes strictly in American vernacular; that in a sense all traces of Russian-ness are missing from this book. Vadim may be a Russian emigree, but he sounds American through and through, at least to my ears in a few notable places ("being lousy with money" for the most notable, an expression that really made my ears perk up). The beautiful descriptions of nature that we used to get, seem missing also. And the train rides, and the lights in the night and so on. So yes I think it has a different style and very deliberately so. Maybe it's his full-fledged attempt to "write American." So why does it sound different from Lolita which was "American?" I don't know (yet). I guess maybe because Humbert sounded different?
Still trying to make head and tail of the book.
peder

 

[pontalba]

I'm only halfway thru, but the amount of references to his own books is amazing, amusing and downright wonderful.
The novel, within a novel, within another novel is one of the most convolutedly interesting pieces of trickery.
Look at the Harlequins!
..............The Dare
...............................Memoirs of a Parrot Fancier

Oh! There was one other reference I noticed that I'd like to bring up.....in the Vintage version p.11 end of part 2...

...but at the same time I could not help wondering if my old grandee had escaped a perversion that was current in so-called circles of high diplomacy.
.....I should add that some information obtained later showed me to be detestably wrong in conjecturing on his part anything but a quasi-paternal interest in me, as well as in another youth, the son of a notorious St. Petersburg courtesan who preferred an electric brougham to a caleche; but enough of those edible beads.

Could this not be an oblique answer to Field's unsavory claims regarding VN's Uncle Ruska? I tend to think this is Nabokov's way of saying that Field's claims were rubbish.

 

[pontalba]

Gem,
For one thing it seems to me that Vadim writes strictly in American vernacular; that in a sense all traces of Russian-ness are missing from this book. Vadim may be a Russian emigree, but he sounds American through and through, at least to my ears in a few notable places ("being lousy with money" for the most notable, an expression that really made my ears perk up).
Maybe it's his full-fledged attempt to "write American." So why does it sound different from Lolita which was "American?" I don't know (yet). I guess maybe because Humbert sounded different?
Still trying to make head and tail of the book.
peder

Just a guess, but Vadim's first brother-in-law worked in Los Angeles, and seemed to have picked up Americanisms....perhaps that was to have rubbed off on Vadim, plus by the time he writes this "memoir", he has lived in America for a long time.
As to different to Humbert.....right off the bat all I can think of is that Humbert had an ingrained distain for poshlust .
Plus, Humbert was new to America, as was Nabokov.....different line of sight. The stage Harlequins! was written in (by VN) coincides with the stage in Vadim's life....he'd become more....if not "Americanized", at least less Russian. Not exactly Less Russian, but less parochial.

 

[Peder]

Oh! There was one other reference I noticed that I'd like to bring up.....in the Vintage version p.11 end of part 2...

Could this not be an oblique answer to Field's unsavory claims regarding VN's Uncle Ruska? I tend to think this is Nabokov's way of saying that Field's claims were rubbish.

Oh, Eagle-Eyed Pontalba!
I missed that completely!
But seeing it now, after you have excerpted it, and reading back over it in context, I would certainly agree that is VN's way of challenging Field's claims and upholding his uncle's honor -- and not so obliquely either.
Great catch!
peder

 

[Peder]

Just a guess, but Vadim's first brother-in-law worked in Los Angeles, and seemed to have picked up Americanisms....perhaps that was to have rubbed off on Vadim, plus by the time he writes this "memoir", he has lived in America for a long time.
As to different to Humbert.....right off the bat all I can think of is that Humbert had an ingrained distain for poshlust .
Plus, Humbert was new to America, as was Nabokov.....different line of sight. The stage Harlequins! was written in (by VN) coincides with the stage in Vadim's life....he'd become more....if not "Americanized", at least less Russian. Not exactly Less Russian, but less parochial.

Pontalba,
I now realize how hard it will be to put a finger on it. I had the feeling as I read originally, that the story-telling was more "streamlined" here than elsewhere in his works, with fewer of VN's digressions into his more elaborate and beautiful descriptions, and that Vadim was a more straightforward and brusque personality -- and maybe even that the sentence structure was simpler. But in rereading pp.11-12 just now, regarding Vadim's grandee ancestor, I really have to say that that description sounds exactly like the VN 'of old.' And the description of the crucial scene, which is still ahead of you -- and of which I refuse to breathe anything more because it is so fantastic! -- that is definitely the VN we know!
So if you don't have the same 'vibes' then my own vibes are very dubious. But as usual your insights into how VN might weave the notions deeply into his story definitely provide food for thought.
And it is is one of the things I am rereading for.
Plus all the wives.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Pontalba,
And the description of the crucial scene, which is still ahead of you -- and of which I refuse to breathe anything more because it is so fantastic! -- that is definitely the VN we know!
Peder

Oh you are a tease!

So if you don't have the same 'vibes' then my own vibes are very dubious.

Well, I'm only half way thru, and I haven't come across one of the expressions you mentioned above, so time will tell.
And here he alludes to Martin's fate... p.100

....and in the last pages my young hero accepts a flirt's challenge and accomplishes a final gratuitous feat by walking through a perilous forest into Soviet territory and as casually strolling back.

Oh!, and p. 126

the Viennese Quack

heh, heh, heh......... but alas, that is as far as I read last night (er, this morning )

Plus all the wives.