Very nice, the mirroring of Beauchamp and
Campbell, in PF, MR. I had just been confused with another kind of split,
between (Du)champ and (Beau)marchais.
Reading KQK attentively, as an informative source
about VN's wordplays, I discovered that many instances of "doubling" and
"Doppelgänger" were representative of a misapprehension as when he places
two widely different people close together to create a duplicity, something
VN will later exploit in "Despair". In that sense, I now keep an open mind
when I come across mirror-doubles, because it might be indicating, and
stressing, a "farse".
In KQK the first example that comes to my mind is
when snobish Martha places an old painting of some illustrious unknown close to
a photograph of a real ancestor to be able to vaguely mention, in an
ample gesture, "this is my grandfather" ( or some other ancestor) to make the
visitor imagine she is referring to the painting. There are at least two
others.
Quite irresistible debate on accidental
"logographs". Mathematicians most probably
prefer a Graph to Count, instead of an Earl.
I must always think twice when the name "Herzog"
is used by Nabokov himself.
In KQK VN was much less inspired when
applying the German: a swimmer or swimming teacher becomes a Mr. Schwimmer,
a cardiologist is Dr. Herzt. Problems with the water from an open
shower come close to Mr.Wasserschluss, a farcical woman is Mrs.
Farshin...
I sometimes suspect that the character's name, Kurt
Dreyer, might indicate the number three for the love triangle (
Drei=Three), but VN is frequently more
subtle than that...