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In readings of PF I have puzzled over the "Heliotropium turgenevi"
that Kinbote plants, which stirs his memory of a "house of painted
wood in a distant northern land" (98). While trying to find any
Turgenev-heliotrope connections, I came across his 1867 novel Smoke.
I was wondering if it has been noted elsewhere that the heliotropium
turgenevi and its evocations have their origins in Turgenev's novel?
In Smoke, the character Litvinov is in a hotel where he is "struck by
a strong, very agreeable, and familiar fragrance, and saw in the
window a great bunch of fresh heliotrope in a glass of water.
Litvinov bent over them not without amazement, touched them, and smelt
them. . . . Something seemed to stir in his memory, something very
remote . . . but what, precisely, he could not discover" (Ch. VI).
The flowers' scent continues to torment Litvinov in his sleep and
triggers a flashback to his memory of his first love, Irina Ratmirov.
What might be the significance of this heliotrope connection?
As Brian Boyd points out (Magic of Artistic Discovery, 91), Russian
writer Vasily Botkin was a friend of Turgenev...
- Tiffany DeRewal
[Smoke also appears in Ada, as Van describes Marina citing "Turgenev's
Smoke" as a book she loved as a girl (Ch. 21)]