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In her article in the latest issue of the Nabokovian, Penny McCarthy
elucidates several connections between 'Apropos of Dolores' by H. G. Wells
and Nabokov's 'Lolita.' Her mention of R. L Stevenson as another source of
Nabokov's simian imagery set off a chain of speculation starting from "Otto
Otto" ('Lolita,' p. 310) and extending perhaps to 'Pale Fire':
In Chapter III, section 6 of 'Apropos of Dolores,' the narrator
writes: “Now that I find myself setting down my case of Stephen Wilbeck
contra Dolores I am astonished at the extremely poor quality of the
evidence produced by my one and only witness, myself. And yet the publisher
of Otto Jensen’s Reality of Evidence ought to have known better.”
This reminded me that R. L. Stevenson wrote a romance called 'Prince Otto'
(originally published in 1885; an online version is available at
gutenberg.org).
In Book II, chapter IV of 'Prince Otto,' we find the following:
"The Countess von Rosen had hitherto been silent, and a thought
depressed, but on the approach of Otto she began to brighten. She
was tall, slim as a nymph, and of a very airy carriage; and her
face, which was already beautiful in repose, lightened and changed,
flashed into smiles, and glowed with lovely colour at the touch of
animation. She was a good vocalist; and, even in speech, her voice
commanded a great range of changes, the low notes rich with tenor
quality, the upper ringing, on the brink of laughter, into music. A
gem of many facets and variable hues of fire; a woman who withheld
the better portion of her beauty, and then, in a caressing second,
flashed it like a weapon full on the beholder; now merely a tall
figure and a sallow handsome face, with the evidences of a reckless
temper; anon opening like a flower to life and colour, mirth and
tenderness:- Madame von Rosen had always a dagger in reserve for the
despatch of ill-assured admirers. She met Otto with the dart of
tender gaiety."
This passage has nothing to do with 'Lolita,' of course - except for the
coincidence of the words "nymph" and "sallow" (but alas! no nymphets
anywhere!) and the phonetic echo of von Rosen with Lolita's friend Eva
Rosen (an echo made more resonant when, later in the book, Madame Countess
von Rosen likens herself to "Vivien").
A further Lolita-esque coincidence occurs in book II, chapter XIII: Madame
von Rosen, speaking with Princess Seraphina, says, "I am going to insult
you, to betray one who is called my lover, and if it pleases you to use the
power I now put unreservedly into your hands, to ruin my dear self. O what
a French comedy! You betray, I betray, they betray. It is now my cue."
A revolution ensues in the Republic and Principality of Grunewald. In book
III, chapter I of 'Prince Otto,' Princess Seraphina is forced to flee the
palace in circumstances very similar (an anti-parody by anticipation of
sorts) to those encountered by the King when he was forced to flee Zembla.
At the end of 'Prince Otto,' R. L. Stevenson tacks a "Bibliographic
Postscript to complete the story" which contains some pleasing mimicries of
scholarship concerning the fate of the ex-Republic of Grunewald.
- Michael S Strickland