Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001644, Tue, 4 Feb 1997 08:34:36 -0800

Subject
Query: "Dormilona" in ADA
Date
Body
From: Neil <ferguson@northcoast.com>

The following sentence appears about 1/3 of way into Ada.

"The mind could hardly grasp the fact that this morning, at dawn, a fey
character out of some Dormilona novel for servant maids had spoken to
him, half-naked and shivering, in the toolroom of Ardis Hall."

Was there such an author? Is this just a word created by Nabokov? Why
is it capitalized?

I enjoyed working though the allusions in Pale Fire but I just do not
understand the word Dormilona. I would really appreciate help with
this.

Thank you,

Neil
ferguson@northcoast.com