''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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namely, a series of events and incidents in which certain
central elements keep recurring and all of which
anticipate, or at least hint at, Hugh's death in the
fire, which is, in turn, only the climax of the series.
Taken together, they form a very clear thematic design.
The first hint is dropped in connection with one
of R. 's novels, in which "there's a rather dramatic
scene in a Riviera villa, when the little girl... sets
her new dollhouse on fire and the whole villa burns
down" (26). "It is all rather symbolic, in the grand
manner", Hugh comments innocently and of course quite
unaware of the implication of his words (26). Armande
gets the title of this same novel wrong and twists
it into The Burning Windows (26), and these actually
figure in the cover design (25,28). Hugh and Julia
Moore have to leave a theatre because of a "brisk
fire" (35. Then comes the rehearsal of an escape from
the hotel, on which Armande insists because she has
just watched a fire on T. V. A dream, throwing in a
street-walker from the past, some glaciers, and a
"Doppler shift" (touched off by "an electric sign,
DOPPLER", which "shifted to violet" [77])
gathers
el-
ements from these earlier impressions and experiences
into a new combination: spurting flames, a house on
fire, and a girl called Giulia Romeo ("Romeo" means
"pilgrim" and Hugh has been seen to be ope), whom
Hugh feels he must save. And while dreaming, he
strangles Armande. The theme is repeated just before
his death, when the hotel to which he wishes to move
is closed down because of repairs after a fire (98).