In the last days of May (presumably, on May 28) 1947 thirty-seven-year-old Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) comes to Ramsdale (a small town in New England), falls in love with twelve-year-old Dolores Haze (Lolita's full name) and, a month later, marries Lolita's mother Charlotte. Ramsdale brings to mind Ovech'yi Vody (Sheep's Springs), the village in Ivan Turgenev's story Dnevnik lishnego cheloveka ("The Diary of a Superfluous Man," 1850). In Turgenev's story, Chulkaturin begins his diary (the story of his life) on March 20, 18**, after the doctor told him that he is terminally ill with consupmtion, and dies less than two weeks later, on the night between the 1st and 2nd of April, 18**. Chulkaturin's diary brings to mind Humbert Humbert's pocket diary ("exhibit number two," as he calls it) that he kept in Ramsdale as Charlotte's lodger (May 28 - June 29). On August 6, 1947, after finding the key to Humbert Humbert's locked drawer and reading his diary, Lolita's mother dies under the wheels of a truck because of a neighbor's hysterical dog. In a letter of October 20, 1848, from Hyères (a seaside resort on the French Riviera) to Pauline Viardot (a French opera singer, 1821-1910, with whom Turgenev was in love) in Paris Turgenev mentions his favorite dessert, une charlotte russe:
Comment allez-vous? Que faites-vous? Comment vous portez-vous? Bien, n'est-ce pas? Vous occupez-vous de l'arrangement de votre maison? Je dine chez vous dimanche, le 5; voulez-vous accepter cette invitation! -- C'est convenu, le 5, dans votre petit salon chinois, vous aurez un convive de plus a table. Je demande pour ce jour-la une charlotte russe.
Lolita's mother was born Charlotte Becker. Charlotte Becker was the maiden name of Afanasiy Fet's mother. A Russian poet and memoirist, Afanasiy Fet (born Shenshin, 1820-1892) was a close friend of Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy. Turgenev's Diary of a Superfluous Man ends as follows:
1 апреля
Кончено... Жизнь кончена. Я точно умру сегодня. На дворе жарко... почти душно... или уже грудь моя отказывается дышать? Моя маленькая комедия разыграна. Занавес падает.
Уничтожаясь, я перестаю быть лишним...
Ах, как это солнце ярко! Эти могучие лучи дышат вечностью...
Прощай, Терентьевна!.. Сегодня поутру она, сидя у окна, всплакнула... может быть, обо мне... а может быть, и о том, что ей самой скоро придется умереть, Я взял с нее слово не "пришибить" Трезора.
Мне тяжело писать... бросаю перо... Пора! смерть уже не приближается с возрастающим громом, как карета ночью по мостовой: она здесь, она порхает вокруг меня, как то легкое дуновение, от которого поднялись дыбом волосы у пророка...
Я умираю... Живите, живые!
И пусть у гробового входа
Младая будет жизнь играть
И равнодушная природа
Красою вечною сиять!
Примечание издателя. Под этой последней строкой находится профиль головы с большим хохлом и усами, с глазом en face и лучеобразными ресницами; а под головой кто-то написал следующие слова:
Сѣю рукопись. Читалъ
И Содѣржанiе Онной Нѣ одобрилъ
Пѣтръ Зудотѣшинъ
М М М М
Милостивый Государь Пѣтръ Зудотѣшинъ
Милостивый Государь мой.
Но так как почерк этих строк нисколько не походил на почерк, которым написана остальная часть тетради, то издатель и почитает себя вправе заключить, что вышеупомянутые строки прибавлены были впоследствии другим лицом, тем более что до сведения его (издателя) дошло, что г-н Чулкатурин действительно умер в ночь с 1 на 2 апреля 18.. года, в родовом своем поместье Овечьи Воды.
April 1.
It is over, . . . Life is over. I shall certainly die to−day. It's hot outside . . . almost suffocating . . . or is it that my lungs are already refusing to breathe? My little comedy is played out. The curtain is falling. Sinking into nothing, I cease to be superfluous . . . Ah, how brilliant that sun is! Those mighty beams breathe of eternity . . .
Farewell, Terentyevna! . . . This morning as she sat at the window she was crying . . . perhaps over me . . . and perhaps because she too will soon have to die. I have made her promise not to kill Tresór. It's hard for me to write, . . . I will put down the pen. . . . It's high time; death is already approaching with ever−increasing rumble, like a carriage at night over the pavement; it is here, it is flitting about me, like the light breath which made the prophet's hair stand up on end. I am dying. . . . Live, you who are living,
'And about the grave
May youthful life rejoice,
And nature heedless
Glow with eternal beauty.
Note by the Editor. Under this last line was a head in profile with a big streak of hair and moustaches, with one eye en face, and eyelashes like rays; and under the head some one had written the following words:
'This manuscnpt was read
And the Contents of it Not Approved
By Peter Zudotyeshin
My My My My dear Sir,
Peter Zudotyeshin, Dear Sir.'
But as the handwriting of these lines was not in the least like the handwriting in which the other part of the manuscript was written, the editor considers that he is justified in concluding that the above lines were added subsequently by another person, especially since it has come to his (the editor's) knowledge that Mr. Chulkaturin actually did die on the night between the 1st and 2nd of April in the year 18**, at his native place, Sheep's Springs.
Eyelashes like rays bring to mind John Ray, Jr., the author of the foreword to Humbert Humbert's manuscript (and Humbert Humbert's "real" name, as it transpires).