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Who is responsible for Hazel’s death? The Shades? Some boy? Her own
psyche? All these miss the obvious. The person who causes her death is
Nabokov. Of course, we can all come up with a variety of reasons for why
he does away with her, reasons that have to do with the integrity of
this one novel. But what would happen if we stepped back from the
individual case and considered all the characters the author has killed?
If I were a literery scholar (I am not), and if I had read all of
Nabokov’s fiction (I haven’t), and had the time (I don’t), I would make
a list of all his victims. I’d get basic demographic data (age, sex,
marital status, etc.) and other personal characteristics, cause of
death, relationship to the other figures in the work, and other factors
I can’t think of right now. (I’m not sure how I would count characters,
like Humbert, who die after the action of the novel.)
Of course, this exercise would have no literary value— i.e., it would
add little, if anything, to our understanding or appreciation of the
work—and I fear that the un-Nabokovian Activities Committee would
object. But I still think it would be interesting to do this census of
dead souls. (If it's already been done, somebody please supply a reference.)
Jay Livingston