1Annotations to Ada (10)Part I Chapter 28
The Kyoto Reading Circle
November 2005
The following members of the Kyoto Reading Circle are equally responsible for the text here:
Chizuko Inoue, Gen’ichiro Itakura, Satoko Ito, Izumi Matoba, Maya Minao, Shoko Miura,Akiko Nakata, Keiko Nishiyama, Tadashi Wakashima, Motoko Yoshikawa.
Page and line references are to the Vintage International edition.

Part IChapter 28

171.01: the Year 1880 (Aqua was still alive . . .):This remark seems to suggest the linkage

between the present chapter and I. 3.

171.02-03: his long, too long, never too long life:
in I. 8:A similar phrase construction can be found“his so remote, so near, 1884 summer.”

171.03: He was ten:“ten” is repeated in a curious way in I. 3. (25.05-07): “’. . .the Hairy

Alpine Rose in her album, collected ten years ago’ (showing her ten fingers gleefully, proudly,ten is ten!).”171.06: an Euler-type problem:

Euler equations.

171.09: the violet shade of pink cliffs:

Leonhard Euler (1707-83)

Anticipates the reference to Tolstoy and his“peasant-bare foot print” (171. 15), for Fyodor says in The Gift that “Lyov Tolstoy . . . preferredviolet shades and the bliss of stepping barefoot.” “Pink cliffs” are also remindful of “pink cliffsof Zion National Park” in Utah (Brian Boyd, American Years 296) and “those pink and mauvecliffs” of “Cedarn in Utana” dreamed by Charles Kinbote.

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171.11-13: his father’s volitations and loves in another life in Lermontov’s
diamond-faceted tetrameters:

An allusion to The Demon, in which an angel falls in lovewith a human woman. There is a play on the paradox of the demon-angel in Van’s father’sname.

171.15: AAA:The initials of Van’s tutor here funnily coincide with triple A—the AmericanAutomobile Association— (related to “a motor court”) and calls attention to the double andtriple letters in this chapter and the double and twin theme in the novel.

171.17-19: Utah where he had written the tale of Murat, the Navajo chieftain: Utah seems
to blend easily with the Caucasus in Nabokov’s mind. Tolstoy here somewhat overlaps withNabokov working on Lolita during his trip to the West. When Humbert was living with Valeria,
he says, “I felt like Marat but with no white-necked maiden to stab me” (The Annotated Lolita
8:26).In his annotation 26/4, p. 344 of The Annotated Lolita, Alfred Appel refers to Jean-Paul
Marat (1743-1793), the French revolutionist stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday.
(=Cora Day). Appel explains the name “Murat” in Ada—a combination of Murad (fromTolstoy’s Hadji Murad), General Murat (Napoleon's brother-in-law and king of Naples), andMarat.

171.21-22: Telluride in West Colorado: Telluride comes from the chemical element tellurium(Te). The last scene in Lolita, where Humbert hears the voices of children playing, occurs in
Telluride, Colorado. Nabokov often went hunting there. Nabokov wrote in 1951 to Wilson,
I went to Telluride (awful roads, but then—endless charm, an old-fashioned, absolutely
touristless mining town full of most helpful, charming people—and when you hike fromthere, which is 9000’ to 10,000’, with the town and its ten roofs and self-conscious poplars
lying toylike at the flat bottom of a cul-de-sac valley running into giant granite mountains,
all you hear are the voices of children playing in the streets—delightful!). . . . (No. 231,Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters 1940-1971, 294)

172.2-4: German musical dramas：Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

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172.13: shuler: cf. 175.28: “the German for ‘schoolboy,’ minus the umlaut”; шулер in Russian,a swindler, a sharper. A further allusion to it is in 175.28. Brian Boyd, in “Even Homais Nods:
Nabokov’s Fallibility or How to Revise Lolita,” (Nabokov Studies Vol. 2, 1995, p. 70) calls
Van’s opponent and would-be card-sharper “Dick Schuler,” on whose name differing views aregiven on our annotation 176.12: Lord C.

172.13-14: gaming conjurers: The theme of illusion pervades.

172.16: Cardiac origin: A perfect choice of word for a card-sharper.

172.27: King Wing: ff: 81-24 (I13) Demon’s wrestling master, who taught Van how to walk on
his hands.

173.23 a fellow student whom we shall call Dick : Dick Cheshire, a cousin of one of Van’s
Riverlane schoolmates who appears in Ch. 4, Part 1:“Cheshire, the son of a thrifty lord(33)”Dick’s name is mentioned again in Ch.3, Part 3, by Lucette: “Your friend Dick Cheshire sends
me presents and racing tips(464).”

173.26 tight: drunk

173.29: female fireflies: see 71:28 for a mention of male fireflies.

174.3-4: a fountain pen, thumb-pressing and re-pressing it; Brian Boyd in ”Even Homais
Nods: Nabokov’s Fallibility or How to Revise Lolita,” (Nabokov Studies Vol. 2, 1995, 70 )points out Nabokov mistakenly made the twins “thumb-press” a fountain pen like a ball pen andsuggests that it may also be read as intentional—the twins were so drunk that they may havetreated the fountain pen as if it were a ball pen. See further discussion of “pen” in annotation
176.10.

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174.22: Van retired to the W.C.: See 521.14: “I must go to the petit endroit (W.C.): Cf.
127.15-16: mestechko (Russ.), the “little place.” See also 176.9: a hot bath (the best adviser,and prompter and inspirer in the world, except, of course, the W.C. seat): the emphasis on
the pun, “double-you-see,” brings focus on many doubles—Venus Villa, Van Veen, the French
twins, and the mirror images produced by Dick’s flashing and twinkling surfaces, “the cheatedcheater” (176.19), etc. Poe’s short story, “William Wilson,” deals with twins—with adoppelgänger theme—and in a similar scene, the egocentric Wilson’s cheating at ecarté isexposed by his good alter ego.

175.22: “rainbow ivory”: Plunkett’s name for joker? Rainbow suggests a free choice of“colors.”

175.33: bewgest: Australian pronunciation of “beau geste” (=a splendid or graceful gesture), asuperficial gesture of vanity related to the deception theme in this chapter. Cf. “he would have tomove to Australia to make new ones there and forge a few checks on the way” (175.1).

176.4: Rosy aurora was shivering in green Serenity Court. Laborious old Chose: A
reference to Baudelaire’s “Le Crepuscule du Matin.” Cf. Part3, Ch.9, “Dawn de Laire” “Dawnen robe rose et verte (430).”
L'aurore grelottante en robe rose et verte
S'avançait lentement sur la Seine déserte,
Et le sombre Paris, en se frottant les yeux,Empoignait ses outils, vieillard laborieux.
--"Le Crepuscule du Matin"
The reference is also found in Lolita and Bend Sinister: “Aurora had hardly "warmed her
hands," as the pickers of lavender say in the country of my birth, when I found myself trying to
get into that dungeon again, knocking upon its green doors, breakfast-less, stool-less, in despair”(Lolita 241-42); “He might add that he had caught a cold in the head during the dumb show.
Undine’s pink gill, iced watermelon, l’aurore grelottant en robe rose et verte. Her sleazy lap”
(103); “[Krug] got up and paced the room. “Some lines need oiling,” he continued, “and I do5

not like the colour of dawn’s coat—I see “russet” in a less leathery, less proletarian way, but you
may be right. The whole thing is really quite wonderful” (Bend Sinister, Penguin 1964, 108).

176.10: pen is the word: The hidden pun pen+is is used to reveal the sexual decadence of theCheshire/Chose clan. The same connotation is behind the choice of the name “Dick.”176.12: Lord C. (he was a cousin of one of Van’s Riverlane schoolmates): A very confusing
puzzle of identity. One possible reading is that Lord C. is Van’s ironically formal way ofreferring to Dick. Though the letter inside is an insidious offer to make a trade of an
introduction to a brothel for forgetting his cheating and debt, the envelope is probably marked
with his ancient title, Lord Cheshire. Because of his dishonorable kind of libertinism, Dick isprobably the same person as “Cheshire” in Chapter 4, 33:4: “Cheshire, the son of a thrifty lord,”
the boy who helps Van to have his first sexual experience. He is called “milord” (173.26) earlier
in this card game scene.
Another reading is that neither Lord C. nor his cousin, “one of Van’s Riverlaneschoolmates,” is likely to be “Dick C” (176.32), or Dick Cheshire (464.18). It seems unlikely
for Van to refer to Dick as “one of Van’s Riverlane schoolmates” so late in this chapter. One
explanation for Van’s receiving a note from Lord C. rather than directly from Dick is that Van
could have received an introduction signed by Lord C. to Villa Venus at the request of DickCheshire, who would have attached with the introduction his own letter to Van offering it inexchange for Van’s cancellation of his debt.
Moreover, if the Riverlane schoolmate is someone we have not been introduced to (Dick’s“whole clan” seems numerous), Lord C. can be one of two possibilities: One is Young Cheshirein Chapter 4, who is not Dick but one of his clan. He may have succeeded his thrifty father tothe title by the time he and Van were in Chose University. The other possibility is Lord Chose(515:19), a “ former chum of Van’s,” the author of The Chimes of Chose, that retains its
popularity because of “several indecent but very funny references to the Villa Venus.” Note also
the initials in “Laborious old Chose” (176.5). The initials “L.C.” might also suggest “Letter ofCredit” since Dick proposes to introduce Van to Villa Venus in exchange for canceling his debt.

6176.14: Venus Villa Club: The first mention of the exclusive whorehouse called Villa Venus(II.3.347).

177.3: euphorion The name of a Greek poet (ca. 275 BCE – 187? BCE) but is also the name ofan Australian butterfly, Troides Euphorion, a large species, not at all like the microscopic
precious metal.Nabokov has invented.

-- http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/papi/euphor.html

Troides euphorion (Gray, [1853])(one synonym : Ornithoptera cassandra)
Cairns Birdwing
PAPILIONIDAE
Don Herbison-Evans ( donherbisonevans@yahoo.com ) & Stella Crossley (updated 25 June
2005)

Male ( Australia Post, 1981)
The origin of the scientific name euphorion for this species may be associated with the figure in
Greek mythology: Euphorion, who was the son of the gods: Achilles and Helen. The name is
nowadays more often associated with the ancient Greek poet: Euphorion (born about 275 BC).
The adult males and females are different. The wings of the female are black and white, withyellow spots along the margin of each hindwing. The body is yellow, with red under the thorax.
The females are larger than the males, and have a wingspan up to 20 cms.

7mating pair: female above, male hanging by the tail(Specimens: courtesy of the Butterfly House, Coffs Harbour)

177.5: one minuscule section of your monocle is made to magnify the mark you make with
it: The alliteration of “m” is conspicuous throughout the chapter, especially when it comes todescribing Dick’s handling of cards. Cf. “a man of many mirrors” (173.27) “Mark ‘em! Mark‘em!” (177.9). As with the doubling and tripling letters and images, the repeated “m” may be theecho of Dick’s “flashing” of “mechanical media” that would lead “inevitably to exposure”(172.30), according to Plunkett.