Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0015509, Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:09:16 -0700

Subject
Re: QUERY: Two LATH! Questions
Date
Body
Matt,
Lilacs normally have four petals, but rarely five. If you find a
five petal one, you are supposed to eat it to bring happiness. Serov's
painting is, I think, in the book on VN & painting that Gerard DeVries
and I did but also on the web. As for the other questions, see my two
essays on LATH in WOrlds in RRegression. Might be helpful or not. I
remember running down the Medor business.

Don Johnson




Quoting Matthew Roth <MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU>:

> While looking into the passages in LATH! concerning VV's relationship with
> Bel (including a stay at the Lupine Lodge) I've been stumped by a couple of
> things.
>
> 1) In his description of Bel, VV says she resembles the girl in Serov's
> painting Five-petaled Lilac, who sits at a table "manipulating a raceme of
> lilac in search of that lucky token." What, pray tell, is the lucky token?
> I can't find any antecedent in the passage and since it is not lilac season
> right now I can't try the experiment myself.
>
> 2) Does there exist anywhere an explication of Bel's second poem, about the
> wolf's head and "Medor, a dead dog"? VV implies that he could give it a
> Kinbotean reading, but I haven't been able to get very far. I admit that I
> am not yet up-to-date on all the existing LATH! criticism, so I'm hoping
> someone has already figured it out and will make it easy for me!
>
> By the way, I am working on the notion that Bel's name should bring to mind
> Annabel Leigh (VV calls her Isabel Lee but it's hard to know if that's her
> real name or not) but also Christabel, the Cinderella figure who fled from
> her father's incestuous advances. Also, the lilac here should link Bel to
> Ophelia and thus to the Rusalka/Naiads theme that runs through several
> novels.
>
> Best,
> Matt Roth
>
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