Subject
Nicolas Freeling and Nabokov
Date
Body
Nicolas Freeling is a British mystery writer resident in Holland.
As an recent Dutch article by Wilma Siccama and Jack Van der Weide
(_Mastaaf_ 1995,#6, pp. 17-2) has shown, Nabokov drew upon Freeling's
1992 _Death in Amsterdam_ (aka _Love in Amsterdam_) for certain details in
ADA, specifically the name "Van Veen."
I notice that Freeling's 1994 _The Seacoast of Bohemia_ returns
the compliment. Freeling's French detective hero Henri Castang is musing
to himself as he drives:
"Why am I so slow, so stupid, so null-and-void? Why am I not Humbert,
observation of every squalid motel, restroom, gas-station and
hot-dog-stand immeasurably sharpeneded by the presence of Lolita?
Lyrical? Poetry? MArvellously memorably moments? True; my Vera (Castang's
middle-aged wife--DBJ), whatever she is, and hiddeously hardheaded; no
Lolita her or is she?........
"What was it like, making love in a hotel room to Lolita? Horrid; one was
obsessed, and one loved her so much, and one felt so guilty and she hated
it so, and it was underhand and squalid and one was miserable and all the
lovely lyicism turns to ashes. Vera is like and unlike. This shallowness
of breast and meagreness of bum and boniness of thigh is like and it is
enrapturing..." (p, 89 in the Mysterious Press paperback._
D. Barton Johnson
Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
Phelps Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
Home Phone: (805) 682-4618
As an recent Dutch article by Wilma Siccama and Jack Van der Weide
(_Mastaaf_ 1995,#6, pp. 17-2) has shown, Nabokov drew upon Freeling's
1992 _Death in Amsterdam_ (aka _Love in Amsterdam_) for certain details in
ADA, specifically the name "Van Veen."
I notice that Freeling's 1994 _The Seacoast of Bohemia_ returns
the compliment. Freeling's French detective hero Henri Castang is musing
to himself as he drives:
"Why am I so slow, so stupid, so null-and-void? Why am I not Humbert,
observation of every squalid motel, restroom, gas-station and
hot-dog-stand immeasurably sharpeneded by the presence of Lolita?
Lyrical? Poetry? MArvellously memorably moments? True; my Vera (Castang's
middle-aged wife--DBJ), whatever she is, and hiddeously hardheaded; no
Lolita her or is she?........
"What was it like, making love in a hotel room to Lolita? Horrid; one was
obsessed, and one loved her so much, and one felt so guilty and she hated
it so, and it was underhand and squalid and one was miserable and all the
lovely lyicism turns to ashes. Vera is like and unlike. This shallowness
of breast and meagreness of bum and boniness of thigh is like and it is
enrapturing..." (p, 89 in the Mysterious Press paperback._
D. Barton Johnson
Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
Phelps Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
Home Phone: (805) 682-4618