the novel-waltz

The Novel-Waltz
(On the Structure of King, Queen, Knave)
by Nora Buhks
translated from the French by Jeff Edmunds
page two of three

The ecstatic structure

The semantic model of the novel is the waltz, the rhythmic circular movement of couples conforming to an ecstatic structure. Vertigo, the dominant characteristic,19 multiplies the circles of the waltz in an acceleration of the tempo, until finally the leap into another dimension is effected--exstasis (which is literally reflected in the effect of unreality that the whirling of the waltz produces).

The novel begins in an instant when movement is born--the departure of the hero for the capital--an instant of qualitative leap:

Ogromnaia, chernaia strela chasov, zastyvshaia pered svoim ezheminutnym zhestom, seichas vot drognet, i ot ee tugogo tolchka tronetsia ves' mir... [p. 5]
[The huge, black clock hand, at rest before its once-a-minute gesture, will presently flinch, and from its resilient jolt a whole world will be set in motion.]

And immediately this movement becomes circular movement, dance:

...liudi, liudi, liudi na potianyvsheisia platfrome, perestavliaia nogi i vse-zhe ne podvigaias', shagaia vpered i vse-zhe piatias', -- kak muchitel'nyi son, v kotorom est' i usilie neimovernoe, i toshnota, i vatnaia slabost v ikrakh, i legkoe golovokruzhenie, proidut, otkhlynut, uzhe zamiraia, uzhe pochti padaia navznich'... [p. 5]
[...people, people, people on the moving platform, moving their feet, yet standing still, striding forward, yet retreating as in an agonizing dream in which there is incredible effort, and nausea, and a cottony weakness in one's calves, and a slight dizziness, will pass by, rush back, now stock-still, now almost falling supine.]

From the first to the final pages of the novel, this circular movement expands, accelerates, sweeping up all the characters. The scenes are transcribed choreographically and are performed by one or several couples simultaneously. Such is, for example, the "fantastic lesson" in business given at night by Dreyer to his nephew. He admits him into the immense empty department store as into a ballroom filled with people:

Draier vzial ego podruku i molcha podvel k odnoi iz piati, v riad siiavskikh, vitrin. V nei, kak v oranzheree, zharko tsveli galstuki, to kraskami peregovarivaias' s ploskimi shelkovymi noskami, to mleia na sizykh i kremovykh priamougol'nikakh slozhennykh rubashek... [p. 68]
[Dreyer took him under the arm and silently led him up to one of the five display windows, radiantly lit in a row. In it, as in a hothouse, ties warmly bloomed, here conversing in colors with silk socks laid flat, there standing out on the gray and cream-colored rectangles of folded shirts....]

Franz's stroll in the streets of the capital is a dance, which, like the whirling of the waltz, arouses in him a sensation of "geometric, vertiginous motley" (golovokruzhitel'noi geometricheskoi raznotsvetnosti, p. 73). The women in the street become his partners:

I na kazhdom uglu, kak znak nebyvalogo schast'ia, stoiala svetlo-nogaia zhenshchina,-- vo vremeni ne bylo zaglianut' ei v litso, uzhe zvala vdali drugaia, za neiu--tret'ia... [p. 74]
[And at every corner, like an omen of unprecedented happiness, stood a bright-legged woman,-- but there was no time to look her in the face: already another beckoned in the distance, and beyond her, a third....]

Returning home after this stroll, Franz feels like after an evening of dancing:

On provel ladoniami po svoim teplim, mokhnatym nogam, vytianulsia so strannym oshchushcheniem kruzheniia i legkosti ... [p. 74].
[He ran his palms over his warm, hairy legs, stretched out with a strange feeling of spinning and lightness...]

It is according to a scheme of dance that the variants of the plan for Dreyer's murder (p. 176), the game of tennis (p. 181-182), the demonstration of the mannequins (p. 210), develop.

Animals enter into the twirling of the waltz:

Tom i taksa, oba zhelavshie drug druzhku poniukhat' pod khvost, dovol'no dolgo vrashchalis' na odnom meste... [p. 208]
[Tom and the dachshund, each wishing to sniff beneath the other's tail, revolved in place for a rather long time.]
... stekliashkami kruzhilis' mukhi, sadias' vse na to zhe mesto... [p. 11]
[...around the little glass pendants flies were circling, alighting every time on the same spot.]

money:

den'gi, nakhodiashchiesia v postoiannom, plodotvornom vrashchenii, dvizhutsia po inertsii i dvizhutsia bystro... [p. 188]
[...money, in constant, fruitful gyration, moved by momentum and moved rapidly.]

as does human society, which becomes:

...odno slitnoe veseloe sushchestvo, shumiashchee, p'iushchee, kruzhashcheesia vokrug samogo sebia. [p. 140]
[...a single composite cheerful creature, making noise, drinking, circling upon itself.]

and surrounding objects:

Belosnezhnyi stol na osi khrustal'noi vazy opisal medlennyi krug. [The snow-white table described a slow circle on the axis of the crystal vase, p. 164]
... priblizilas' bagrovaia fabrika, zakruzhilas' i otoshla... [a crimson factory drew near, began to spin, and moved off, p. 249]
... kruzhashchaiasia lesenka avtobusa... [the bus' spinning staircase, p. 2620]

Dance encompassing all things transforms the novelistic space into a huge ballroom which Nabokov decorates, in accordance with tradition, with mirrors, as is evidenced by a feeling frequently experienced by the characters: bystrota, golovokruzhitel'nost', zerkal'nost' [speed, dizziness, 'mirrorness'] (p. 27). The protagonists are constantly looking at each other in mirrors, are reflected in them, and their movements are continued in mirrors.21 There is a clear intent to parody the play of mirror reflections in Andrey Bely's Peterburg, play which creates the mystical and apocalyptic space of the novel.

Like the waltz, the novel King, Queen, Knave is presented as a perfectly executed ecstatic period, beginning with the birth of movement (p. 5), the result of a qualitative leap, and concluding with its disappearance, at the moment when it dissolves into the universe of sounds. Franz, tormented by the fear that Martha might recover, returns toward the sea and learns of her death. He goes up to his hotel room:

Prilozhiv ladon' ko rtu, chtoby kak-nibud' uderzhat' smekh, dushivshii ego [..]. Smekh, nakonets, vyrvalsia. On rvanul dver' svoei komnaty. Baryshne v sosednem nomere pokazalos' sproson'ia, chto riadom, za stenoi, smeiutsia i govoriat, vse srazu, neskol'ko podvypivshikh liudei. [p. 259-260].
[Having placed his palm over his mouth, so as to somehow suppress the laughter choking him ... The laughter finally subsided. He tugged at the door to his room. To the half-awake young woman in the neighboring room, it seemed that next door, behind the wall, several tipsy people were all laughing and talking together.]

Exstasis as organizing figure of the movement of the waltz is implemented by Nabokov on various levels of the text. Three essential functions of "passage" can be distinguished in the novel.

First of all exstasis as autonomous situation. For example:

Draier nashel fioletovuiu lentochku v knige, zalozhil stranitsu I, vyzhdav sekundy dve, kak bydto ne mog srazu pereiti iz odnogo mira v drugoi, legon'go khlopnul sebia po koleniam i vypriamilsia. [p. 16]
[Dreyer found the violet ribbon in the book, marked the page, and having waited a couple of seconds as if he could not immediately pass from one world to the other, lightly slapped himself on the knees and stood up.]

Franz passes from a third-class car to a second-class car:

Tak, v misterii, po dlinnoi stsene, razdelennoi na tri chasti, voskovoi akter perekhodit iz pasti d'iavola v likuiushchii paradiz. [p.15]
[Thus, in a miracle play, across a long stage divided into three parts, a grease-painted actor passes from the jaws of the devil into an exultant paradise.]

Another example:

... Frants v to utro ... ne prosnulsia deistvitel'no, a tol'ko pereshel v novuiu polosu sna. [p. 29]
[... that morning Frants had not really awakened, but had only passed into a new stratum of sleep.]

A second function is the realization of a qualitative change, for example the transformation of a portrait bought at random into a family portrait (p. 38), the transformation of Franz into an automaton (p. 149-150), of mannequins into living men (p. 210), of a sleeping Franz into a cadaver (p. 18), etc.

A third function, finally, is the passage from one point of view to another. The principle of rhythmic succession which causes the faces of the waltzers to flow by an observer's gaze is artistically expressed in this constant exchange. Here are a few examples:

Franz sees in a dream:

...Martu, sidevshuiu na kraiu posteli. On bystro podoshel [...] on uzhe pochti prikosnulsia k nei, no vdrug ne sderzhal vskipevshego blazhenstva.
Marta vzdokhnula i otkryla glaza. Ei pokazalos', chto ee razbudil blizkii shum. Deistvitel'no, --na sosednei posteli osobenno razviazno khrapel ee muzh. [p. 75]
[...Martha, sitting on the edge of the bed. He quickly approached ... he had already almost touched her, but suddenly could not contain the boiling bliss.
Martha sighed and opened her eyes. It seemed to her she had been awakened by a nearby noise. Actually, it was her husband, snoring with especial abandon on the neighboring bed.]

Another example. Martha is showing a photograph to Franz that she has received from her husband:

Na snimke ulybalsia Draier, v lyzhnom kostiume, s palkami v rukakh, i lyzhi lezhali parallel'no, i krugom byl iarkii sneg, i na snegu--ten' fotografa.
Kogda fotograf, --svoi brat lyzhnik, shchelknul i razognulsia, Draier, prodolzhaia siiat', dvinul vpered levuiu lyzhy... lyzha skol'znula dal'she, chem on sam predpolagal i, vzmakhnuv palkami, on dovol'no gruzno povalilsia na spinu. [p. 150]
[In the snapshot Dreyer was smiling, in a ski suit, with poles in his hands, and the skis lay parallel, and all around was bright snow, and on the snow--the photographer's shadow.
When the photographer, his fellow-skier, had clicked the shutter and straightened up, Dreyer, still beaming, moved his left ski forward...the ski slid farther than he had intended, and, ski poles flailing, he toppled rather heavily onto his back.]

A third example. Franz is standing at the door of the room where Martha is dying:

Frantsu opiat' pokazalos', chto on uslyshal bormotanie Marty, bystryi rokot breda... on povernulsia i, cherez plecho ogliadyvaias', pospeshno ushel. Bred ostalsia v polutemnoi komnate.
I po volnam, po melkim kruglym volnam, kotorye podnimalis' i spadali, [...] Marta plyla v beloi lodke, i na veslakh sideli Draier i Frants. [p. 253]
[It again seemed to Franz that he could hear Martha's mumbling, the rapid murmur of delirium... he turned, and, glancing over his shoulder, hurriedly left. The delirium remained in the semi-dark room.
And over the waves, the small rounded waves, which rose and fell, ... Martha floated in a white boat, and at the oars sat Dreyer and Franz.]

In the three examples cited the situation with the change in point of view is modified qualitatively: 1) passage from sleep to wakefulness, 2) passage from representation to the thing represented, 3) passage from reality to delirium. The passage is thus double.

Numerous critics seeking literary influences have compared the works of Nabokov and Joyce. Without entering the debate, I will cite here an excerpt from Nabokov's lectures on Joyce. Nabokov explains the constant change in the predominant style in Joyce's novel by the distinctive character of its literary perspective, which is created by the changes in points of view. Next he gives a somewhat odd example:

If you have ever tried to stand and bend your head so as to look back between your knees, with your face turned upside down, you will see the world in a totally different light.22

The same scene had already been described in Nabokov's second novel, King, Queen, Knave:

Kogda, okolo desiati vernuvshis' domoi, Frants na tsypochkakh prokhodil po koridoru, on uslyshal glukhoe khikhikanie za khoziaiskoi dver'iu. Dver' byla poluotkryta. On mimokhodom zaglianul v komnatu.starichok khoziain, v odnom nizhnem bel'e, stoial na chetveren'kakh i, nagnuv sedovato-bagrovuiu golovu, gliadel--promezh nog--na sebia v triumo. [p. 86]
[When, having returned home around ten, Franz was proceeding along the corridor, he heard a muffled tittering behind the landlord's door. The door was ajar. He looked into the room as he passed. The old landlord, clad only in his underwear, was standing on all fours and, bending his grayish-ruddy head, was peering through his legs at himself in the cheval glass.]

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Notes

19. The characters constantly experience dizziness. For example: "Golovokruzhenie stalo dlia nego [Frantsa -- N.B.] sostoianiem privychnym i priiatnym..." [Vertigo became for him [Franz] a habitual and pleasurable state] (p. 147); "[u Draiera] zabavno kruzhilas' golova" [Dreyer's head felt amusingly dizzy] (p. 168).

20. Benediktov's poem "Val's," written in 1840, offers an analogy in miniature of the whirling of the waltz as it is reproduced in the novel:

Vse blestit : tsvety, kennety,
I almaz, i biriuza,
Liustry, zvezdy, epolety,
Ser'gi, perstni i braslety,
Kudri, frazy i glaza.
Vse v dvizhen'i : vozdukh, liudi,
Blondy, lokony i grudi,
I dostoinye ventsa
Nozhki s tainym ikh obetom,
I strastiami, i korsetom
Iznurennye serdta.
[All sparkles: flowers, cannetille,
And diamond, and turquoise,
Chandeliers, stars, epaulettes,
Earrings, rings, and bracelets,
Curls, phrases and eyes.
All in motion: air, people,
White silk lace, ringlets and breasts
And Viennese dignitaries
Little feet with their secret promise,
And with passions and corsets
Jaded hearts.]

(V.G. Benediktov, Stikhotvoreniia, Leningrad, 1983, p. 213).

The structure of the waltz is realized in an original way by means of the embellished updating of the terminology, and their literal reading. For example: "oborotni sluchaia" [turns of chance] (p. 191), "krugovorot del" [rotation of affairs] (p. 198), "kruglye sutki" [round the clock] (p. 137).

21. "Draier [...] reshil podozhdat' Martu. V zerkale otrazhalas' ego shirokaia, svetlo-seraia spina [...]. On bystro obernulsia, budto pochuvstvoval, chto kto-to smotrit na nego, otodvinulsia, i v zerkale ostalsia tol'ko iarko-belyi ugol nakrytogo stola" [Dreyer decided to wait for Martha. In the mirror was reflected his wide, light-gray back ... He turned around quickly as though feeling that someone was watching him, moved away, and all that remained in the mirror was a bright white corner of the covered table] (p. 62); "V zerkale otrazilos' ee zelenoe plat'e, nezhnaia sheia [...]. Ona dazhe ne pochuvstvovala, chto zerkalo na nee gliadit" [In the mirror was reflected her green dress, delicate neck .... She didn't even feel that the mirror was looking at her] (p. 65); "Frants s udovol'stviem otmechal svoe prokhozhdenie v zerkalakh" [Franz noted with pleasure his passage in the mirrors] (p. 80); "On [Frants -- N.B.] poznal oduriaiushchii razliv ogromnykh zal [...] on videl sebia i Martu v presyshchennykh zerkalakh" [Franz came to know the stupefying flow of enormous ballrooms ... he saw himself and Martha in surfeited mirrors] (p. 148); "Zerkala zameniaiutsia drugoi otrazhaiushchei poverkhnost'iu : Draier [...] shchurilsia ot neozhidannykh belykh molnii, kotorye otskakivali ot perednikh stekol proezzhavshikh avtomobilei" [The mirrors are replaced by another reflective surface: Dreyer ... squinted because of the sudden white flashes, which were rebounding from the windshields of passing automobiles] (p. 168); "No chto podelaesh'. kodga nedavnaia zhizn' cheloveka eshche otrazhena na vsiakikh predmetakh, na vsiakikh litsakh ..." [But what do you do, when the recent life of a man is still reflected in every objet, in every face ...] (p. 259).

22. Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), p. 289.

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