Полковник. Я как-то сразу заметил, что -
сумасшедший. По одежде даже видно. И этот быстрый волчий
взгляд...
(The colonel noticed at once
that Waltz was a madman. His costume and "that quick look of a
wolf" betrayed him. The Waltz Invention, Act One)
Salvator Waltz is a protégé of general Berg. The
Minister of War (the colonel is his advisor) rings Berg up and
learns from him of old Perrault's death on the previous night: Слава богу, что умер во сне, бедняга. ("Thank God, the poor man died in his sleep.") Son* (which
means both "sleep" and "dream") is a reporter whom Waltz makes his
assistant. He (or, rather, she) dutifully runs errands for
Waltz but refuses to bring him Annabella (the beautiful young daughter of
general Berg) and leaves his (her) master. According to VN (see his
Foreword to the English version of Izobretenie Val'sa), Annabella
is five years older than Lolita. In Lolita, Annabel Leigh is Humbert
Humbert's first love. The thirteen-year-old boy's attempt to make love with
Annabel (who was a few months HH's junior) was interrupted by two
strangers: I was on my knees, and on the point of possessing
my darling, when two bearded bathers, the old man of the sea and his brother,
came out of the sea with exclamations of ribald encouragement, and four months
later she died of typhus in Corfu. (One, 3)
Charles Perrault (1628-1703**) is the author
of Little Red Riding Hood, the fairy tale mentioned in
Pale Fire and alluded to in Lolita and her Russian
predecessor, Volshebnik (The Enchanter, written in 1939, a
year after The Waltz Invention):
...а отсюда уже был естественен переход к
признанию за умницей судьбой прекрасного поведения и к первому сладкому
содроганию крови: бирюк надевал чепец ("the lone
wolf was putting on a night cap")... белозубый в
постели, братья с шапрон-ружьями*** (the white-toothed
in bed, the brothers with guns)...
Perrault's fairy tale La Barbe Bleue is alluded
to in Lolita (Two, 22): Poor Bluebeard. Those
brutal brothers.
*Trance in the English version
**St. Petersburg (VN's home city) was founded in
1703
***a play on le petit Chaperon
Rouge
Alexey Sklyarenko