Subject:
RE: [NABOKV-L] Hunted Enchanters query
From:
"Brian Walter" <bdwalter@wustl.edu>
Date:
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:40:22 -0600
To:
"'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

In Chapter 13 of Part Two, the name of Quilty’s play turns out to be exactly the same as that of the hotel in which Humbert first sleeps with Dolly: “Being much occupied at the time with my own literary labors, I did not bother to read the complete text of The Enchanted Hunters, the playlet in which Dolores Haze was assigned the part of a farmer’s daughter who imagines herself to be a woodland witch. . . “ (p. 212 of the Everymans edition).

 

But if hapless memoirist Humbert misses Quilty’s cleverly cruel little joke, the nymphet certainly doesn’t:

 

“‘Can you remember,’ she said, ‘what was the name of that hotel, you know [nose puckered], come on, you know – with those white columns and the marble swan in the lobby?  Oh, you know [noisy exhalation of breath] – the hotel where you raped me.  Okay, skip it.  I mean, was it [almost in a whisper] The Enchanted Hunters?  Oh, it was?  [musingly] Was it? – and with a yelp of amorous vernal laughter she slapped the glossy bole and tore uphill, to the end of the street, and then rode back, feet at rest on stopped pedals, posture relaxed, one hand dreaming in her print-flowered lap.”  (p. 214, Everymans edition)

 

 

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