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

Principle of repetition and couples

The repetitive nature of the figures of the waltz, linked to their limited number and the order of their movement, which is apparently free, is one of the essential components of the novel's structure. Almost all the scenes in the work are performed twice. For example, Franz's arrival by train in the capital at the beginning of the novel and at the end, before Martha's death, with in both cases the episode of the train's entry into the station (p. 21 and 255); the investigations into the history of crime which Franz and Martha make in seeking a method of killing (p. 158-159) and those of Dreyer visiting the crime museum with the inventor (p. 200). The meticulous preparation of Franz and Martha's happy married life to come (p. 133) is tested in a scene of "a dress rehearsal of the happiness already near" (general'noi repetitsii uzhe nedalekogo schast'ia, p. 151) organized by the lovers in the husband's absence (p. 152-154).

Also repeated are details such as, for example, the hotel Video where first Franz and then the inventor stay, both having come to the capital to realize their dreams (p. 90); the two numbers, registered by Franz and noted in the text as numerals--the number of the taxi that picks up Dreyer "2221" (p. 146) and the number of the hotel room where Martha lies dying "21" (p. 252); images-- at the end of the novel, Franz notices a couple:

Inostranka v sinem plat'e i zagorelyi muzhchina v staromodnom smokinge... oni mel'kali, kak povtornyi obraz vo-sne, kak legkii leitmotiv, --to na pliazhe, to v kafe, to na naberezhnoi. No tol'ko teper' on osoznal etot obraz, ponial, chto on znachit. (p. 240)

[The foreign woman in the blue dress and the suntanned man in an old-fashioned dinner jacket... they flashed by, like a recurrent dream image, like a subtle leitmotiv,--now at the beach, now in a cafe, now on the promenade. But only now did he realize this image, understand what it meant.]

Frants mashinal'no podoshel k etomu mertvetsu v beloi rubashke... poproboval vspomnit', gde on uzhe videl takoe litso. Da, konechno, davnym davno v poezde. (p. 166)

[Franz mechanically approached the corpse in the white shirt... tried to recall, where he had already seen such a face. Yes, of course, long, long ago in the train.]

The couple, at the level of subject as of structure, is the novel's fundamental unit. The subject develops by means of the formation and movement of the couples which break up the apparently self-evident triangle. At the outset there is the married couple of the Dreyers:

V kupe [...] sideli tol'ko dvoe : chudesnaia, bol'sheglazaia dama i pozhiloi gospodin c podstrizhennymi zheltymi usami. (p. 10)

[In the compartment ... sat only two people: a lovely large-eyed lady and a middle-aged gentleman with a clipped tawny mustache.]

The couples form in a rhythmic fashion, in secret one from the other, but they describe practically the same circles. For example:

Dance lesson: Martha-Franz
Business lesson: Dreyer-Franz
Rendezvous of Franz-Martha at Franz's
Rendezvous of Franz-Dreyer in Dreyer's store
Dances of Franz-Martha in the ballroom
Tennis matches of Franz-Dreyer on the courts

But it is all the characters in the novel, no matter what their importance, that are divided into couples, parodying the numerous variants of the model of the couple in daily life. Among them the following groups can be distinguished:

1) Couples based on a marital bond. Here are two examples:

Skhodia po lestnitse, ona [Marta] vstretila na povorote chuzhogo gospodina [muzha], kotoryi bysto podnimalsia, posvistyvaia i udariaia stekom po balliustrade. "Zdravstvui, moia dusha" skazal on, ne ostanavlivaias'. (p. 99)

[Coming down the staircase, she met at the turn a strange gentleman, who mounted swiftly, whistling and tapping the banisters with his riding crop. "Hello, my love," he said without stopping.]

Another example of parodic reproduction of the marital model is the couple of the old lodger and his wife, a deceased companion, professor of mathematics (p. 218)

2) Couples based on romantic bonds. Thus the couple Martha-Franz, which evolves in contrary ways according to the partner, Martha loving her lover ever more passionately, whilst Franz at the end of the novel concludes that:

... ego oputala, prilepila k sebe stareiushchaia zhenshchina,--krasivaia, pozhalui,--a vse-taki chem-to pokhozhaia na bol'shuiu beluiu zhabu. (p. 244)

[... he had been ensnared, appropriated by an older woman--pretty, perhaps--but nevertheless somehow resembling a large white toad.]

Sestra Frantsa, takai blednaia v etot rannyi chas, nekhorosho pakhnushchaia natoshchak, v kletchatoi pereline, kakoi, nebos', ne nosiat v stolitse, -- i mat', malen'kaia, kruglaia, vsia v korichnevom, kak plotnyi monashek. (p. 5)

[Franz's sister, so pale at this early hour, exuding an unpleasant, empty stomach smell, in a checked cape that one would not likely see in the capital, and his mother, small, round, all in brown, like a compact little monk.]

3) Couples based on a resemblance, for example:

... dve pliushevykh starushki, debelaia zhenshchina s korzinoi iaits na koleniakh i belokuryi iunosha v korotkikh zheltykh shtanakh... (p. 6) [two plush old ladies, a plump woman with a basket of eggs on her lap and a blond youth in tan shorts];

tantsmeister i student (p. 237, oba temnye, podvizhnye) [the dancing master and the student, both swarthy, agile];

[sozdateli manekenov] skulptor, pokhozhii na uchenogo, i professor, pokhozhii na khudozhnika (p. 209-210) [the sculptor (who creates the mannekins), resembling a scientist, and the professor, resembling an artist].

...litsa nemytykh, plokho odetykh ubiits, --odutlovatye litsa ikh zhertv, stavshikh posle smerti pokhozhimi na nikh-zhe... (p. 200)

[the faces of unwashed, badly dressed murderers--the puffy faces of their victims who in death came to resemble them],

Draier razvodilsia. Byl Draier, opasnyi, dokuchlivyi, kotoryi khodil, govoril, khokhotal, -- i byl kakoi-to, otkleivshiisia ot pervogo, sovershenno skhematicheskii Draier, kotorogo i sledovalo unichtozhit'. (p. 173)

[Dreyer had divided in two. There was the dangerous, irksome Dreyer who walked, talked, guffawed, and there was a kind of completely schematic Dreyer, who had become detached from the first, whom it was necessary to destroy.]

In conclusion let us return to this article's initial hypothesis, that the parodic functioning of King, Queen, Knave is realized at a structural level.

Based on what has been said here, it can be seen that the work was written in the musical tradition founded in Russian literature by Andrey Bely. The symphony, chosen by Bely, was for him a sublime genre, a perfect artistic form, an incarnation of the absolute harmony of the laws of creation, the artistic equivalent of the "world's orchestra" (cf. the concept of the "world's orchestra" in Alexander Blok).

Nabokov chose the waltz as the musical model for his novel. This popular form, devalued, well rooted in lower-middle-class circles, is reproduced as a literary parody of the noble form of the symphony in Andrey Bely. In fact the semantics of the novel's structure embodies in parodic fashion the entirety of the Symbolist representation of the world ("Brownian motion" is found in the empirical world, and harmony in the superior world, the world of essence). The waltz, a form imitating a chaotic turning is transformed by Nabokov into a harmony of automatism and repetition, in parodic contrast with the harmony of the superior spheres proclaimed by the Symbolists. The very broad recourse to playful processes also flows from the parodic function.24 And the entire length of Nabokov's novel, the "orchestra of the world" is answered ever more distinctly by the "radio loudspeaker's din" (grom iz truby radio, p. 81).

The original French version of this article appeared in Revue des études slaves, LIX/4, 1987, pp. 799-810.

23. The sexual significance of the Franz-Dreyer couple appears in the scene in which Franz is changing clothes before playing tennis: "Draier, pykhtia ot neterpeniia, boias', chto vot, seichas, razduetsia v nebe dozhdevaia tucha, pomchal ego [Frantsa -- N.B.] naverkh [v spal'niu -- N.B.] i vydal emu paru belykh flanelevykh shtanov. Podbochenias' i skloniv golovu nabok, on s trevogoi smotrel, kak Frants pereodevaetsia [...]. Frants byl v bledno-lilovykh kal'sonakh [...]. Bylo nevynosimoe mgnovenie, kogda on prygal na odnoi noge, natiagivaia na druguiu shtaninu, mezh tem, kak Draier delal smutnye dvizheniia protianutoi rukoi, tochno khotel pomoch' [...]. Draier oblegchenno usmekhnulsia : shtany okazalis' vopru. On vzial Frantsa za lokot', povernul ego tak i etak, i ladon'iu plotno khlopnul ego po zadu." [Dreyer, puffing from impatience, fearing that there, presently, a rain cloud might swell in the sky, whisked him [Franz] upstairs [to the bedroom] and gave him a pair of white flannel pants. Arms akimbo and head cocked, he watched with uneasiness as Franz undressed .... Franz was in pale lilac drawers .... There was an unbearable moment when he was hopping on one foot, tugging on the other pant-leg, while Dreyer made vague motions with an outstretched arm, as if wanting to help .... Dreyer grinned with relief: the pants seemed just right. He took Franz by the elbow, turned him this way and that, and with his palm slapped him solidly on the rump] (p. 181).

24. A hypothesis can be made that King, Queen, Knave functions as a parody of the Suprematism of Kasimir Malevich, with its renunciation of nature as a subject for art, the predominance of geometric shapes, in particular the triangle and circle, and with its attempt to attain a higher harmony through the assemblage of bare lines (lines denuded of ornamentation).