Giulia Visintin wrote(among other things) answering a question about "Curdy
Buff" ( "Coeur de Boeuf"):
"From the land where the tomatoes flourish (I beg your pardon, Herr Goethe),
I may say that ..."

 

How interesting, Giulia playfully connected "Cuore di bue" and Goethe's
"Mignon" . Incidentally - or not? -  this treacherous knave Harfar is
presented as mounting a circus with his followers and clowns in Disa's
palace), echoes of which I had vaguely heard in "Ada".

 

Still harping on "characters", would the cruel treachery represented by
"Harfar" in "Pale Fire"  be somehow related to VN's "KDV", in English,
"KQK"?
Jansy