"Pushkin writes (the quote is in French): "notre marriage semble toujours fuir devant moi, et cette peste avec ses quarantines n'est elle pas la plus mauvaise plainsanterie que le sort ai pu imaginer" [ ] "c'est un grand peut-être, comme le disait Rabelais du paradis ou de l'eternité. Je suis l´Athée du bonheur."...Perhaps John Shade (and Nabokov) saw the 'otherword' differently. Nabokov most certainly wasn't an 'athée du bonheur'."Actually, one of the titles that Nabokov had in mind for what later became "Pale Fire" was "The Happy Atheist."* If I understand Pushkin's expression in French, what he means about "bonheur" and "atheist" is rather the opposite of Nabokov's assertion concerning his main character at the time. "My main creature, an ex-kingm is engaged througout Pale Fire in a certain quest...At first I thought of entitling my novel The Happy Atheist, but the book is much too poetical and romantic for that...My creature's quest is centered in the problem of heretofore and hereafter..." (from VN's selected letters)All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.