Don B.Johnson wrote in relation to ADA
and LATH : " It is a curious and significant fact that at leasst
two of VVīs wives have the letter sequence "BL" in their names (...) All of
these characters are related to Count Starov and it is their
incestuous consanguinity that is denoted by the alphabetic emblem "BL" in their
names. The sound sequence is, moreover, not randomnly chosen. As we have noted
previously in connection with "Ada", Nabokov denies any deep meaning in hisuse
of the incest theme, saying merely that he likes "the bl" soun in siblings,
bloom, blue, bliss, sable (SO 122-123). "BL" is Nabokovīs private emblem for the
incest theme (...) "Worlds in Regression: Some novels of Vladimir
Nabokov", Ardis publishers, 1985, page 139.
Starovs, Blaubergs and Blues could be related, they also metamorphose
into a doctor (Starov, after Drs.Coates and Oates, or
Dr. Colt). Inspite of all the links offered below, I only kept one
advice, obtained thru CK ("a wild goose chase")
In PALE FIRE there is Starover Blue : CK's notes to
line 189, Starover Blue: See note to line 627. This reminds
one of the Royal Game of the Goose [...] a wild-goose game, rather (go to square
209). // CK's notes to line 627: The great Starover
Blue:Presumably, permission from Prof. Blue was obtained but even so the
plunging of a real person[...] into an invented milieu where he is made to
perform in accordance with the invention, strikes one as a singularly tasteless
device [...]This name, no doubt, is most tempting [...] his grandfather, a
Russian starover (accented, incidentally, on the ultima), that is, Old Believer
(member of a schismatic sect), named Sinyavin, from siniy, Russ.
"blue." [...] begot a son who eventually changed his name to Blue and
married Stella Lazurchik. There is also a Dr.Colt and a
journalist, Jim Coates, with the misprinted
mountain/fountain and a gushing blue-haired lady who told Shade:
I loved your poem in the Blue Review./...our two
souls would be / Brother and sister trembling on the brink/Of tender
incest./
TRLSK presents us with a doctor Starov, dr.Coates
and dr Oates:
even the door is as dead as its nail.[...] Coates (the
doctor) is right when he says that my heart is too small for my
size.// In 1929, a famous heart-specialist, Dr Oates,
advised Sebastian to spend a month at Blauberg, in Alsace...
(there are other references to blue and blau, chessboards and all)
LATH: I felt against my raised knees the fifty-year-old folded
chessboard, Nikifor Starov's gift // an unexpected patron in the person of Count
Starov, a grave old-fashioned Mason* // "In the temple we shall build, Sir,"
said Iris[...]Count Starov "chewed his lips," as old men are wont to do in
Russian novels. //I've discovered at last someone who speaks both
languages, yours and mine, as two natives in one, and
can make all the edges fit. I am thinking of Nadia
Starov."// Nadezhda Gordonovna Starov was the
wife of a leytenant Starov (Christian name
unimportant), who had served under General Wrangel//I translate: a White
Russian, Wladimir Blagidze, alias Starov, who was subject to paroxysms of
insanity[...]// my trusty old mashinka ("machine"), Count Starov's wedding
present[...] //The eyes,once an irresistible hazel-green[...]The
nose, inherited from a succession of Russian boyars, German barons,
and, perhaps (if Count Starov who sported some English blood was my real
father), at least one Peer of the Realm.
* Architecture: The main church of the St.
Alexander Nevsky Monastery founded by Peter the Great in 1710-1713 to
commemorate the victory of the Russian troops in the Neva battle of 1240. Built
in 1776-1790 by the architect Ivan Starov// The Cathedral of
the Holy Trinityof the Izmailovsky Life-Guards Regiment Built in 1828-1835
to Vasily Starov's design.