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novel s concluding four paragraphs where, not surprisingly, Ray s subliminally
staked claim persists in Humbert s final words. In reflections echoing Hum-
bert s feeling curiously aloof from my own self (33) on his polar expedition,
H.H. concludes: This then is my story. I have reread it. It has bits of marrow
sticking to it, and blood, and beautiful bright-green flies. At this or that twist
of it I feel my slippery self eluding me, gliding into deeper and darker waters
than I care to probe (308). Nabokov then follows Humbert s psychological
bewilderment with inept secretary Ray s uncorrected solecism the mention
of the fifty-six days during which Humbert has written his memoir. As if to
emphasize the problematic nature of Humbert s redemption, Nabokov tells
194 Forum
us H.H. plans to use parts of this memoir in hermetic sessions. Does H.H.
have in mind closed court sessions or onanistic reveries in his cell? Humbert
continues with another intriguing observation: For reasons that may appear
more obvious than they really are, I am opposed to capital punishment; this
attitude will be, I trust, shared by the sentencing judge. If the sentencing
judge is Nabokov (the ultimate judge of the text s sentences ), Humbert is
spared capital punishment in one sense by dying before his trial can start; on
the other hand, since capital also alludes to the location of Clarence Clark s
District of Columbia bar and Ray s town, Gray Star, the powers opposed to
Humbert inflict ongoing punishment culminating in his coronary throm-
bosis. Nabokov gives yet another twist to the dramatic irony: Had I come
before myself, I would have given Humbert at least thirty-five years for rape,
and dismissed the rest of the charges. Since Ray s Foreword precedes Hum-
bert s adulterated memoir, Ray s voice comes before Humbert s, which is (at
least in part) Ray s. Meanwhile, Humbert s foul mouth doesn t permit him
to finish the book without another crude pun: Be true to your Dick. In the
novel s final sentences, Nabokov s audible undertone blends with Humbert s
fading voice in an envoy subliminally signed by Ray:99
And do not pity C.Q. One had to choose between him and H.H., and one
wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him
make you live in the minds of later generations. I am thinking of aurochs
and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge
of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.
(309)
99. the refuGe of aRt. And ThIS is the only immoRtAlitY you and I may
share, my Lolita. When Appel asked Nabokov whether one was supposed to
hear a different voice in the novel s final sentences, the author responded:
No, I did not mean to introduce a different voice. I did want, however, to
convey a constriction of the narrator s sick heart, a warning spasm causing
him to abridge names and hasten to conclude his tale before it was too late. I
am glad I managed to achieve this remoteness of tone at the end (452). I
think this is technically accurate but a little cagey. There was no need to intro-
duce a different voice; the voices of John Ray and Nabokov himself get plenty
of exercise throughout the novel. And again Nabokov s screenplay offers an
intriguing parallel: on its penultimate page A NARRATIONAL VOICE (Dr.
Ray s) breaks in to announce Lolita s death in Gray Star and to herald
Humbert s final words (212 13).
Who s Who in the Sublimelight 195
VI
The evidence presented in this paper suggests that however fallible Nabokov
may have been, the meticulous attention he pays to detail and the pointers
he offers yield handsome rewards to readers who tread carefully while follow-
ing his guidance, bearing him out as a rather more generous, if demanding,
antagonist in the struggle with the reader than is sometimes supposed. Nabo-
kov s subliminal clues, once noticed, make possible an additional spine-thrill
for the re-reader whose eye travels over such resonant phrases as all this
amended perhaps, I wrote it really twice, I am ready to make unusual
amends, I propose to borrow [& ] to borrow and to borrow and to borrow,
and the whole arrangement was a masterpiece. Also on the lighter side,
certain puzzling, seemingly gratuitous details turn out to be closely inter-
wound with the inmost fiber of the book : we learn the real purpose of
Humbert s expedition to polar regions, the identity of the small hairy
hermaphrodite, and why the chair is painted yellow.
How does the recognition of Nabokov s subliminal plot affect the reading of
Lolita and the assessment of Nabokov s achievement in a larger sense? The
widespread evidence of John Ray s covert influence over Humbert s story
sheds considerable light on issues raised by the contending views of Dolinin,
Connolly, and Boyd at the beginning of this essay. The chronological incon-
sistency of the three lost days need not be seen as leading inevitably to the
supposition that the book s final scenes are mere products of Humbert s fancy,
nor is it necessary to attribute the problem to an error on the part of Nabokov.
Given Ray s active involvement in the text, it is hardly a leap to suppose
that Nabokov deliberately created the discrepancy in the dates and other
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