Vladimir Nabokov: Look at the Harlequins!

[pontalba]

Gem
VN doesn't put a word or phrase in there that doesn't have some other layer to it, plus his delicious sense of humor in describing himself as a "cultured-looking young man", which is exactly what he was. So in a sense Nabokov the novelist at 70 odd years of age was describing the younger version of himself.

A Lolita reference that also pokes fun at himself was on p.29

She was what in a later era amateurs were to call a "nymphet." As she caught my glance she gave me, over our sunny globe, a sweet lewd smile from under her auburn fringe.

You know I started questioning why I liked Iris so much, and went back and found out. In many ways she is an underdog character. Tragic in many senses, but always an outsider to the Russian emigre community that she married into. At one of the rare salons Vadim (Mr. Unsocialability) attended with her, he overheard some guests murmer...

"She is an Englishwoman."

VN would not have brought that up at all unless it was a reference to Iris. Now her mother was an American and "horrible", her father's nationality wasn't mentioned (unless I missed it) but he died in England while separated from the mother, so I assumed he was English. Their death was also strange, but thats for later.
So Iris must live in an enviorment that is not only clannish to the nth degree, but disapproving of her. Not easy. But she managed it with grace for the most part. As far as I can remember it was never said right out that she had an affair, but one person was obsessed with her.

 

[Peder]

But she managed it with grace for the most part. As far as I can remember it was never said right out that she had an affair, but one person was obsessed with her.

Pontalba, Gem,
Yes I would say that Iris comes across as beguilingly sweet and innocent and that she is written the way Vadim saw her. Some aspects of the story suggest a life beyond Vadim's unsuspecting eyes, so one might be able to construct an alternative view it seems to me, but so far I'm also inclined to say "not proven." Overall I think she is charming.

Done with The Story of Annette,
Next!
Peder

 

[Gem]

Pontalba,

VN doesn't put a word or phrase in there that doesn't have some other layer to it,

Yes, I'm beginning to see that. Nabokov seems to have a strong presence in the entire novel, it's almost like you can hear him talking continuously in the background. I didn't feel this way whilst reading Lolita or Knight.
Also,Vadims descriptions of his daughter were eeirly reminiscent to descriptions of Lolita.

written the way Vadim saw her. Some aspects of the story suggest a life beyond Vadim's unsuspecting eyes, so one might be able to construct an alternative view

I'd have to agree with this, as nice as Iris was...

Done with The Story of Annette,
Next!

You sound like you're having fun Peder.

 

[pontalba]

Some aspects of the story suggest a life beyond Vadim's unsuspecting eyes, so one might be able to construct an alternative view it seems to me, but so far I'm also inclined to say "not proven." Overall I think she is charming.
Peder

Yes, I know, maybe its a case of out of sight, out of mind, but I feel as though anything untoward Iris may have done was partially because of the 'outcast' feeling she endured from Vadim's crowd. No, not his friends, the emigre society. Evidently it was closed and clannish, and her personality was not one that mixed well with them for whatever reason.
Vadim knew what and how she was before he married her. And if he could overlook her behavior, thats all that mattered.

Its a question of what one can live with and what we can't. When VN wrote this story, he was of an age that he'd been thru all of that himself, in reverse of course, but he knew the value of forgivness. Perhaps thats what he was trying to get across.

 

[Peder]

You sound like you're having fun Peder.

Gem,
Well, yes. Fun is always better than the alternative.
But actually I'm also working through the book very carefully trying to track down some clues to things I am still puzzled about. (And that is fun, too.) This book reminds me of Pnin, which was quite straightforward and easy to read as a simple and enjoyable story. Until one tried to answer one simple question. "So who was the narrator?" Then all of a sudden it got very fascinating, because VN had hidden the answer so deep.
So, in Harlequins also, there are a couple places where there seem to be slightly odd phrasings with something missing, and I have learned that these are generally tip-offs that VN is pulling the wool over one's eyes somehow. So I'm in vacuum-cleaner mode, snuffling up anything that looks like a clue for later analysis. And I got one -- which is going to have to wait until others have had their chance to finish the book and see what is obvious to them that wasn't obvious to me. /tease, tease, you all out there/
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Gem
I did feel "Nabokov, the Russian emigre" strongly throughout both Sebastian Knight and Glory. But more on the level of "the path not taken". Remember the novelist I mentioned of his in Harlequins! taking notes of all around.....VN seemed to take what surrounded him applied it to himself, and then reversed the stories.

And the way VN teases us with Lolita inflections! (p.78)

I had a box of chocolate-coated biscuits to supplement the zwiebacks and tempt my little visitor. The writing board was put aside and replaced by her folded limbs. .....quite suddenly in the midst of our chat, she would wriggle out of my arms and make for the door as if somebody were summoning her, though actually the piano kept stumbling on and on in the homely course of a family happiness in which I had no part and which, in fact, I had never known.

All of these little interludes certainly had my antenna twitching.

 

[pontalba]

So, in Harlequins also, there are a couple places where there seem to be slightly odd phrasings with something missing, and I have learned that these are generally tip-offs that VN is pulling the wool over one's eyes somehow.
And I got one -- which is going to have to wait until others have had their chance to finish the book and see what is obvious to them that wasn't obvious to me. /tease, tease, you all out there/
Peder

I just hate it when you do that!

mutter mutter.....what have I missed.....

 

[pontalba]

Peder Love the new signature line.

"An eager childish rap at the door diverted my attention. Dolly walked in, smiling. Smiling, she indicated with a tilt of her head that the receiver should be cradled. Smiling, she swept the examination books off my desk and perched upon it with her bare shins in my face.....And from the class just across the corridor came a burst of applause at the end of Prof. Kings last lecture of the season."

No wonder Vera kept such an eagle eye on our boy.

 

[Gem]

Peder,

So I'm in vacuum-cleaner mode, snuffling up anything that looks like a clue for later analysis. And I got one -- which is going to have to wait until others have had their chance to finish the book and see what is obvious to them that wasn't obvious to me. /tease, tease, you all out there/

Oh Peder! You must not tease so!
Pontalba,

VN seemed to take what surrounded him applied it to himself, and then reversed the stories.

Yes,although I was thinking he'd distorted the stories rather than reversed them, but yes I can see why that makes sense.

 

[Peder]

Oh Peder! You must not tease so!

Gem, Pontalba,
There is method in my madness.
Partly I think I got the story backward in a major way. /sheepish grin/
Secondly other people will probably see it correctly, without any deep complications.
Third I'm hoping to tempt some of our herd, er horde, er unheard to let us know how they stand on reading/starting/finishing , before going into too many details of the story.
But I'm near the end on reread,
Some puzzles still open, /sigh/
Peder

 

[StillILearn]

our herd, er horde, er unheard

Still, laughing! I went to Borders today and they didn't have it. I guess this means I will have to "let my fingers do the walking" to amazon.com

You're all making this one sound "verra " tempting. Apparently VN didn't write any bad books.

 

[Peder]

Still, laughing! I went to Borders today and they didn't have it. I guess this means I will have to "let my fingers do the walking" to amazon.com

You're all making this one sound "verra " tempting. Apparently VN didn't write any bad books.

Still.
Very glad to hear from you.
This definitely is a lighter-hearted read, with VN himself and his career much more in evidence. If it were factual it would be autobiography. If it were fictional it would be a novel. As it is, it is Harlequins. I don't know how else to describe it. It is Nabokov playing with the idea of an author quite like himself in many ways being the subject of his own full-length fictional autobiography.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Still, laughing! I went to Borders today and they didn't have it. I guess this means I will have to "let my fingers do the walking" to amazon.com

You're all making this one sound "verra " tempting. Apparently VN didn't write any bad books.

LOL SIL! Once you start, you won't want to put it down. I read it in basically two sittings. Up till 3 a.m. Of course thats not too unusual for me.

 

[Peder]

Back on the trail here, after a day spent in the Big City replenishing stocks at the Strand Bookstore. /evil joy/
Have finished the re-read of Harlequins but am still trying to decipher the ultimate puzzle. More re-read, more notes, more coffee needed. I hope he didn't forget to put the clue in the book.
Peder
Ever Vigilant

 

[StillILearn]

LOL SIL! Once you start, you won't want to put it down. I read it in basically two sittings. Up till 3 a.m. Of course thats not too unusual for me.

pontalba, you go to bed about the time I'm waking up! Between the two of us we could enter a read-around-the-clock marathon.

Harlequins is on its way to me. There were only two left in stock -- do you think that maybe there're other book clubs out there reading this one right now? What an interesting thought. I guess with the internet even this kind of information might be remotely accessible.

Hm.

 

[StillILearn]

The relation between autobiography and fiction is especially difficult to assess in the case of Nabokov, first because he wrote an autobiography that possesses the characteristics of a poetic novel (some of the chapters were first published as short stories), and second because he caricatured his own biography in his last published novel, Look at the Harlequins! (1974).

link

.............

 

[pontalba]

SIL
Thanks for the informative link. Really interesting. I've copied and pasted a portion over in Everything Nabokov thread as it is linked to something I'd posted before about the biographer Andrew Field.

As the rest of it, I have Speak Memory right here, and hope to finally get to it someday. Soon I hope.
But the more I see, the more I know I need a reread of Harlequins!

 

[Peder]

link

.............

SIL,
That sounds like a great link! It's now In My Favorites anyway, but I'm resisting looking since I haven't finished my search yet for the Missing Clue. I have now elevated it to Capitalized Status. But "caricatured" is a great word, a fabulous word to describe Harlequins' relation to Nabokov.
Brava, SIL! (as usual)
Peder

 

[pontalba]

I have taken the tinyist of peeks at the Boyd bio.....teeny tiny.
But me lip is zipped.

 

[Peder]

It sounds like, if one reads Speak Memory end to end with Harlequins, one's head might spin several times 'round completely, and one might never know what was truth or fiction in VN's writings.
Food for thought,
Peder