In a message dated
09/12/2002 21:22:42 GMT Standard Time, chtodel@cox.net writes:
I'm sorry but there is no french phrase as
"qu'il-t-y". >
The phrase is "qu'il t'y mene
[grave accent over the first e of mene]". It's in a letter from Mona Dahl,
Lolita's friend, to Lolita (p. 221, Penguin edition). But there are other
possible reasons for Humbert's/Nabokov's choice of the name Clare Quilty.
Others have pointed out that it suggests "clear(ly) guilty", as opposed,
presumably, to the "touching" Humbert's attempt to seduce readers into
sympathising with his near-innocence.
But there are other problems about the
name Quilty. The "Foreword" by "John Ray, Jr., Ph.D." implies that all the
names, including Vivian Darkbloom, but excepting Lolita, and possibly Quilty,
are pseudonyms. If Vivian Darkbloom is a pseudonym then surely Quilty must
be too, for what purpose would be served by disguising the name of the author of
his biography "My Cue" but not his own name? But how can Humbert, or
conceivably John Ray Jr., invent a pseudonym that is the anagram of their
creator? And how, if Quilty is a pseudonym, can Mona's letter contain
"qu'il t'y"? There seem to be questions,
or jokes, here analogous to those suggested by "Pale Fire".