Subject
Re: Birthdates of VN's characters
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In Part I chapter 2 of Lolita, Humbert Humbert writes:
The only definite sexual events that I can remember as having occurred before my thirteenth birthday (that is, before I first saw my little Annabel)…
Annabel…a lovely child a few months my junior.
HH and Annabel meet in the summer of 1923. So it seems HH’s birthday is in the summer.
In autumn 1923 HH enters a lycée in Lyon.
Four months after HH and Annabel’s “fatal summer”, she dies of typhus in Corfu. If we assume their thwarted love occurred in August, Annabel must have died in December 1923 –in the same month as Lolita.
Later on, in chapter 5, HH writes:
When I was a child and she was a child, my little Annabel was no nymphet to me; I was her equal, a faunlet in my own right, on that same enchanted island of time; but today, in September 1952, after twenty-nine years have elapsed [i.e. 1923], I think I can distinguish in her the initial fateful elf in my life.
This confirms that the fatal summer was in 1923.
Needless to say, I may have overlooked something or other.
A. Bouazza.
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of NABOKV-L, English
Sent: woensdag 24 april 2013 13:51
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Birthdates of VN's characters
Hello again,
I really like Steve's idea (and thanks for covering for me last night, Steve) of assembling a list of birthdates (and perhaps references to birthday celebrations) for VN's characters. Please chime in with what you notice or find. Perhaps we can come up with a complete calendar by next year?
:) SES
--
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
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The only definite sexual events that I can remember as having occurred before my thirteenth birthday (that is, before I first saw my little Annabel)…
Annabel…a lovely child a few months my junior.
HH and Annabel meet in the summer of 1923. So it seems HH’s birthday is in the summer.
In autumn 1923 HH enters a lycée in Lyon.
Four months after HH and Annabel’s “fatal summer”, she dies of typhus in Corfu. If we assume their thwarted love occurred in August, Annabel must have died in December 1923 –in the same month as Lolita.
Later on, in chapter 5, HH writes:
When I was a child and she was a child, my little Annabel was no nymphet to me; I was her equal, a faunlet in my own right, on that same enchanted island of time; but today, in September 1952, after twenty-nine years have elapsed [i.e. 1923], I think I can distinguish in her the initial fateful elf in my life.
This confirms that the fatal summer was in 1923.
Needless to say, I may have overlooked something or other.
A. Bouazza.
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of NABOKV-L, English
Sent: woensdag 24 april 2013 13:51
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Birthdates of VN's characters
Hello again,
I really like Steve's idea (and thanks for covering for me last night, Steve) of assembling a list of birthdates (and perhaps references to birthday celebrations) for VN's characters. Please chime in with what you notice or find. Perhaps we can come up with a complete calendar by next year?
:) SES
--
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
Google Search the archive <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en>
Contact the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
Visit <http://www.nabokovonline.com> "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Manage subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
Visit AdaOnline <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/>
View NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html>
Temporary L-Soft Search the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/