from Alexey Sklyarenko (who is not sure if his idle thoughts are relevant):
 
Disa's Villa Paradisa is near Nice (see Kinbote's note to ll. 433-434). Its Russian name, Ницца (pronounced Nitsa), rhymes with a number of words, one of them being bol'nitsa ("hospital"; the Ницца-больница rhyme occurs, for instance, in Mayakovsky's poem about his unhappy Odessa love Облако в штанах, "The Trousered Cloud"). Bol'nitsa comes from bol'noy (adj., "ill", "sick"; noun, "patient"), but also has bol' ("pain"; "ache") in it. Kinbote's wife Disa is Duches of Payn, of Great Payn and Moan (герцогиня Больстонская, из великой Боли и Стона in Vera Nabokov's translation; note that "Больстон" is not too far from the American Boston).
Note that, according to Carolyn Kunin's theory, Shade is not murdered but hospitalized.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.