Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010114, Sun, 25 Jul 2004 08:18:41 -0700

Subject
Armand Rave (revised) (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Sunday, July 25, 2004 4:32 PM +0900
From: Akiko Nakata <a-nakata@courante.plala.or.jp>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Armand Rave (revised)


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> Note also the strangler convict "Armand Rave" perhaps echoing inter alia
> French homosexual criminal writer Jean Genet who figures in VN-Edmund
> Wilson letters. What is one to make of the similarity of his name to
> Armande?

This might be a clue . . . Genet's *Journal du Voleur* (1949) has a
character named Armand, a colleague and amant of the protagonist in
Belgium--Armande's nationality is Belgium too. As Don
has mentioned, VN wrote to Edmund Wilson, who had recommended Genet and lent
*Notre Dame des Fleurs*, that he read the book with pleasure. VN
appreciated Genet's artistic originality.

I have no idea about Rave. Armand in JdV is not the type of raving villain.
Rave (in French--turnip?) could be dancing among the vegetables?

It has just occurred to me. Like Armand Rave's lover, the twins, Jack and
Jake, appearing in Chapters 14-15, are also bisexual and probably
incestuous. The young major characters of the novel, HP, Armande,
Julia--they are all heterosexual (probably) and "only child."

Akiko Nakata

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D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L