Subject:
RE: [NABOKV-L] Hunted Enchanters query |
From:
"Brian Walter" <bdwalter@wustl.edu> |
Date:
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:40:22 -0600 |
To:
"'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> |
In Chapter
13 of Part Two, the name of
Quilty’s play turns out to be exactly the same as that of the hotel in
which Humbert first sleeps with Dolly: “Being much occupied at the time
with my own literary labors, I did not bother to read the complete text
of The Enchanted Hunters,
the playlet in
which Dolores Haze was assigned the part of a farmer’s daughter who
imagines
herself to be a woodland witch. . . “ (p. 212 of the Everymans edition).
But if
hapless memoirist Humbert misses
Quilty’s cleverly cruel little joke, the nymphet certainly doesn’t:
“‘Can you
remember,’
she said, ‘what was the name of that hotel, you know [nose puckered], come
on, you know – with those
white columns and the marble swan in the lobby? Oh, you know [noisy
exhalation of breath] – the hotel where you raped me. Okay, skip
it. I mean, was it [almost in a whisper] The Enchanted Hunters? Oh,
it was? [musingly] Was it? – and with a yelp of amorous vernal
laughter she slapped the glossy bole and tore uphill, to the end of the
street,
and then rode back, feet at rest on stopped pedals, posture relaxed,
one hand
dreaming in her print-flowered lap.” (p. 214, Everymans edition)