I suggested earlier that there is a link between last name of Shade and Chernyshevski. Now let me bring up Sleptsov in short story ‘Christmas’. The comparison is fleeting - more of an undercurrent, but it’s still there. That story starts with death of a child in winter; his Father contemplates suicide after reading fragments of son’s diary. Just then the cocoon in the biscuit tin had burst and black Attacus moth with glazy eyespots and purplish bloom on its foretips appeared. Likewise in PF we have dark Vanessa playing role in the ending when it appears in front of Shade who crosses the threshold to Judge Goldsworth’s house to meet his physical death and rebirth in just completed poem. As Jeff Edmunds pointed out [Jeff Edmunds, RJ:Christmas, 09/19/1994; Nabokov-L archive] that Russian original’s version of the title ‘Rozhdestvo’ etymologically relates to ‘rozhdenie’, birth: Sleptsov has his spirit restored by magnificent display of the moth that his son remembered in delirium. And in PF Shade is lead to rebirth by Vanessa associated with his dead daughter. I put Sleptsov into my little ‘Shade’ tin, to join Chernyshevski cocoon.

    Separately, delicacy, economy and balance of symbols at key points of ‘Christmas’ [Roy Johnson, RJ:Christmas, 09/14/1994; Nabokov-L archive] are matched and surpassed only by ‘Signs and Symbols’, IMHO.

    Here are few URLs with photo of Attacus moth:

http://www.pbase.com/colind/image/30268217.

http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--12470218/Atlas_Moth_Attacus_Atlas_Indonesia.htm#

The picture in last site has characteristic blackish hue described in the story. Also as Don pointed out [Fwd: RE: QUERY re Attacus moth, 01/09/2002; Nabokov-L archive] “for those with Dieter Zimmer's ‘A Guide to Nabokov's Butterflies and Moths’ there is a splendid  picture of the Atlas Moth on the next-to-last page.”

 

George Shimanovich