Discussion - Week Two - Ada, or Ardor - Part One, Chapter 26 - 43

[Jim]

This discussion covers Part One, Chapter 26 – 43, p. 160 – 325


Mélange plus de temps et de mémoire.

(and more Nabakovian voyeurism)


To avoid spoilers, please restrict comments to page 1 – 325

[Ryan]

Feel bad for not contributing to discussion all that much. Just finished Part Two, but there are many things I have to say about the second half of Part One. In particular, I LOVED the chapters that dealt with Lucette. Their schemes to distract her, when she was not naive at all to their little affair, in fact, quite voyeuristic of it all. It was entertaining, but mostly quite heartbreaking (as, so far, Lucette's character remains).

Also, the chapter on the family reunion, with Daddy Demon joining Mommy, Brother, Sister, and half-sister. The dialogue and discussion on dialogue was SO much fun to read. I love their play with so many different languages.

[Jim]

Ryan wrote: "Feel bad for not contributing to discussion all that much. Just finished Part Two, but there are many things I have to say about the second half of Part One. In particular, I LOVED the chapters tha..."

This whole book is quite the incest-fest, isn't it? A bit heavy handed at times, but as you say, the language is beautiful.

[Rodrigo]

There is something, in particular chapter XXXII, that made me think of the possibility of the character Mme. Larivière or Monparnasse were writing a novel and that novel is Ada or Ardor. I think Nabokov pretended that one reader could think that. There is a passage where Marina wonders why she talks like she talks in that same passage. Also the allusions to Proust are quite funny. Ada is a novel that has a constant dialogue with A la recherche... among other works by Tolstoi and Flaubert and etc. I never forget that this is a russian novel so I often think of Tarkovski's films, and those characters and creepy sunrises. I don't know. This novel triggers many things in me -among those referred below, some personal experiences.

[Jim]

Hródric wrote: "There is something, in particular chapter XXXII, that made me think of the possibility of the character Mme. Larivière or Monparnasse were writing a novel and that novel is Ada or Ardor. I think Na..."

Yes, I can see that. Nabokov worked on this book for a long time and was certainly trying to write a "big" book, and so no surprise to see echoes of Proust, Flaubert, Tolstoy, et al. What puzzles me a bit is why he chose to foreground the incest as much as he does. Maybe a kind of "the acorn doesn't fall far from the oak" commentary.