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Vladimir Nabokov: Look at the Harlequins!

Yes! Pontalba!
We finally caught him in the act, uttering that phrase "the Viennese Quack" that drives his adversaries so up the wall! hee-hee-heee.
And it is wonderful to be teased with how Glory turned out. :rolleyes: Between the puns and the allusions to other works there is a smile on almost every page, and some uproarious guffaws on others.
His courtship of the not-quite-approachable Iris is fun in itself, as she holds him off gently with her palm and says unh-unh "Others are watching." A caution that might have helped Hum and Lo on the beach another time, another place. We get all the other halves to other scenes, other times.
Delightful,
Peder
 
Ah Pontalba,
"Assimilate." Good word for this one! :D
That "you" who finally popped up at the end hinted very strongly to me that I had missed a turn in the road someplace. Like, duh?!
So I am going back to parse the story by wives, as long as the standard five acts won't do it.
And just now I am in the middle of "The Story of Iris." Hence the silence on the screen.
I'm assimilating :)
And drinking coffee, too,
Peder

PS to Raffaellabella I have forwarded your PM to the mods, and their return request for further information back to you. Hope you have been getting all that via PM, and/or seeing this alternate route.
P.
 
Peder,
That "you" who finally popped up at the end hinted very strongly to me that I had missed a turn in the road someplace. Like, duh?!
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I think you were distracted by the wives.;)

Pontalba, Just how eagle eyed are you?:eek:
I'm guessing that about 98% of the references just flew way over my head. Sigh. I did get this one though:
"the Viennese Quack"
:rolleyes:
 
Peder Yes. Coffee the great assimilator. :D Gallons maybe at this rate. :eek:

Gem LOL! There were so many references that I stopped marking them. Some I know went over my head, as I haven't read all of his books, but I could make some guesses on them too.

Nabokov must have had a ball writing this one! Peder is right when he says that there is a laugh, gasp, or shock on every page. :cool:
 
There was one peculiarly worded sentence in the very beginning that I noticed. It struck me at the time,
But my afternoon was poisoned, and the afternoon is my favorite item of time.
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Item of time? Very different IMO, but interesting.
Finally I boarded a small smelly bus of blue tin.
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Doesn't that just in that short sentence conjure up the entire picture?
The very first reference is of course Gogol on the first page. VN was commissioned to write a book on him. Nikolay Gogol. Advance to p.5, and we find a "Sebastian" hopefully expected
for the grape season or lavender gala.
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So, right off the bat VN begins his dance. :)
 
Been wondering how anyone else is coming with Harlequins.
Any other starters out there?
I don't think we are all 'assimilating' yet, are we? :rolleyes:
Peder
 
Peder
I wondered too, I know Steffee and SIL said they were buying and/or reading. But I think its a bit too soon for them to have finished.

Thats why I only posted about the first few pages, as I don't know where interested readers are. :confused:
 
Pontalba,
Finally I boarded a small smelly bus of blue tin.
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This sentence really stood out for me as well. So simple but sets the scene so brilliantly.
Others that stood out on those first few pages:
I would have lost my reason long before finding my rhymes.
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The left side of my head was now a bowling alley of pain.
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pontalba said:
:D Hah!
I wish just once Nabokov had written a female protagonist,
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Oy Pontalba!
I hate to think of what might have happened if Loilta, or Sonia, or Lecerf/Nina had really cut loose!
The world may not be ready for that! :D :D :D
Peder

He could barely manage Vera tee-hee :rolleyes:
 
I think Louise would make an excellent Main Protagonist.

Husbands, lovers......etc. :D
But Nina outstrips her...that is true.

was there a pun intended.....???? Hmmmmm..... :D
 
pontalba said:
I think Louise would make an excellent Main Protagonist.
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Pontalba,
Not there yet. The ladies have to wait in line. :D
But Iris now done.
And I rather liked her.
On to the next,
Peder
 
Gem,
the left side of my head was now a bowling alley of pain
Click to expand...

Glad you mentioned that. I've been thinking about it over coffee and I wonder if that might be an 'American' phrase. Here in the States we definitely have bowling alleys. I don't know anything about how bowls games are played elsewhere, or what they are called, but how does that phrase sound to you? Do you have establishments specifically called "bowling alleys" over there? :confused:
Peder
 
Peder,
I don't think the establishments are popularly called bowling alleys here (someone correct me if i'm wrong.) Actually when I was reading the sentence, in my mind I was seeing a bowling alley/lane with the ball hurtling towards the bottles.
If however he was referring to the actual building then I would think that it was an Americanized phrase.
 
Gem said:
Peder,
Actually when I was reading the sentence, in my mind I was seeing a bowling alley/lane with the ball hurtling towards the bottles.
Click to expand...
Gem,
Yes! That was exactly the same image I had, noise and clatter included, even if we call them "pins" rather than "bottles" over here, and "lanes" would definitely be a dignified usage instead of "alleys." :D
Even though the establishment might be named "Carolina Pines" or even "Empire Lanes" we always went down to the "bowling alley" for lunch. :)
Peder
 
Standing in the middle of a busy bowling alley, all lanes in use at the same time, everyone laughing, screaming and talking, the balls hitting the pins one after the other, so there is never a let up of the horrendous din. Phew! Every bowling alley I've been in has this reverberating sort of pounding that never lets up.

A Kingdom by the Sea...which was the name Nabokov thought to call Lolita in the beginning.
...a cultured-looking young man, possibly a novelist, sat holding a small memoranda book in which he kept penciling separate items--possibly the description of various objects his eyes roved over inbetween notes--the ceiling, the wallpaper, the picture, and the hairy nape of a man who stood by the window....
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Had to be a description of himself.

Of the wives, Iris was the best.....until the last. :cool: She was the most honest and seemed to really love Vadim in spite of maybe an indiscretion along the way.
 
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