Ada or The Desire

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Ada or Desire is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1969 .

Ada began to emerge in 1959 when Nabokov was flirting with two projects: The Texture of Time and Letters from Terra . In 1965 he began to see a connection between these two ideas and finally formed a novel from February 1966 to October 1968 that united the two. The published cumulation was to be his longest work. Ada was initially received with mixed feelings by the critics.

content

Ada tells the life story of Van Veen and tells of his lifelong love affair with his sister Ada. When they meet at the age of 11 (Ada) and 14 (Van), they believe they are cousins, more precisely: that their fathers are cousins ​​and their mothers are sisters, and they enter into a sexual relationship. They later discover that Van's father is also Ada's father, and that their mother is also Van's mother.

The story traces the numerous interruptions and resumptions of their relationship. Both are wealthy, educated, and intelligent. Van became a renowned psychologist over time, and the novel itself became his memoir . He wrote these in his 90s, they are interrupted by his marginal notes, as well as by those of Ada and an unnamed editor , which suggests that the manuscript is not complete.

The novel is divided into five, with each part being approximately half the length of the previous part. As the pieces advance chronologically, this structure creates the impression of a person pondering over their own memories, adolescence being epic in length although other years are very briefly covered. A rough estimate of the years covered in each part is given in parentheses below, but the narrator's thoughts often fall outside of the stated periods.

background

The story takes place in the late 19th century of an alternate version of the earth called Demonia or Antiterra. Antiterra is at least largely the same as Earth geographically and has a similar history, but it is very different from Earth in some respects. For example, the United States covers the entire American area (which was discovered by African seafarers). However, Russians have settled there to a large extent, so that what is now northern Canada is a Russian-speaking province called "Estoty" and southern Canada is a French-speaking province called "Canady". The three languages ​​are equally widespread in North America .

Russia itself and a large part of Asia are part of an empire called Tartaria, while the word "Russia" is simply an "obsolete synonym" for Estoty. The British Empire , which largely includes Europe and Africa , is ruled by a certain King Viktor. The aristocracy is still widespread, but some technology is at the status of the 21st century. However, since its discovery , electricity has been almost entirely banned due to an event known as "the L disaster," so planes and automobiles exist but television and telephones do not, or are driven by similar water- powered devices , replaced. The background is therefore a complex mix of Russia and America in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In addition, Antiterra is largely believed to have a twin world called Terra. This manifests itself through some kind of fringe religion or mass hallucination. The name “Antiterra” could be an inference from this, since the planet itself is called “Demonia”. One of Van's early areas of expertise as a psychologist is researching and working with people who believe they have a connection with Terra. Terra's supposed story, as far as explained, appears to be that of the real world: that is, the characters in the novel dream of or hallucinate about the real world.

The central characters are all members of the North American aristocracy and are mainly of Russian and Irish descent. Demenity (called Demon) Veen is Daniel Veen's first cousin. They marry a couple of twin sisters, Aqua and Marina, who are also their second cousins. Demon and Aqua raise a son, Ivan (called Van), Dan and Marina have two daughters, Ada and Lucette. The story begins when Van spends a summer with his cousins, 12 and 8, at the age of 14.

Part 1: 43 chapters (1863–1888)

The first four chapters offer a kind of unofficial prologue and move swiftly back and forth in the chronology of the narrative, but mainly deal with the events between 1863 and 1884, when the story was actually taking its course. The chapters depict Van and Ada discovering their true relationship, Demons and Marina's affair, Aqua's descent into madness and her obsession with terra and water, and Van's first love, a girl he sees in an antique shop but never speaks to Some consider the first four chapters to be deliberately difficult to understand. Chapters 4 through 43 deal largely with Van's adolescence and his first meetings with his "cousin" Ada, with a focus on the two times he spent the summer with her (and her "sister" Lucette) at Ardis Hall, the home of her ancestors, namely 1884 and 1888.

Van and Ada fall passionately in love in 1884, and their affair is marked by a powerful sense of romantic eroticism . The book begins with their discovery that they are actually not cousins, but rather brother and sister. This passage is obviously difficult, especially since neither of them explicitly expresses the conclusion they came to and this is only hinted at later in the text. Although Ada's mother keeps a wedding photo from August 1871, 11 months before Ada's birth, they find a newspaper report in a box in the attic that the wedding dates to December 1871. They also find evidence that Dan was abroad that spring. So he's not Ada's father.

In addition, you will find an annotated album of flowers that Marina owned in 1869–70, which implies in a very indirect way that she was pregnant and in a sanatorium at the same time as Aqua; that Demon sent 99 orchids to her on the day Van was born ; and that Aqua miscarried due to a skiing accident . It later emerges that Marina gave her sister's child to replace the lost one - so she is in truth Van's mother - and that her affair with Demon lasted until Ada's conception. This makes Lucette (the child of Dans and Marina) the two uterine half-sister.

This section ends with Van's discovery of Ada's infidelity and his subsequent escape from Ardis Hall to take revenge on those “rivals” he knows by name: Phillip Rack, Ada's older and characterless music teacher, and Percy de Prey, a rather rowdy one Neighbor. Van is distracted by a random dispute with a soldier named Tapper, whom he challenges to a duel and by whom he is wounded. In the hospital, he meets Phillip Rack, who is dying, which is why Van cannot bring himself to take revenge on him. He then learns that Percy de Prey was shot in Antiterras' version of the ongoing Crimean War . Van moves in with Cordula de Prey, Percy's cousin, in Manhattan while he's still recovering. They have a superficial physical relationship, which means a respite for Van from the stress that his feelings are for Ada.

Part 2: 11 chapters (1888-1893)

Van delves into his psychology studies and often visits the "Villa Venus" establishments, brothels for the upper classes. In the autumn of 1892 Lucette, who had previously confessed her love for him in a letter, presented him with a letter from Ada, in which she announced that she had received a marriage proposal from Adrey Vinelander, a wealthy Russian. Should Van want to invite her to live with him, she will refuse the request. Van does this and they start living together.

In February 1893, Demon, her father, appears with news that his cousin (Ada's supposed father) Dan has died as a result of a period of exposure caused by running naked into the woods near his house during terrible hallucinations. When he grasps the situation regarding Van and Ada, he explains to Van that Ada would be happier if he "gave her up" and further that he would lose Van as a son if he did not. Van blends disappears and attempted suicide committing, which, however, fails because its weapon does not fire. He eventually leaves her Manhattan apartment.

Part 3: 8 chapters (1893-1922)

Since Ada married Andrey Vinelander, Van occupied himself with traveling and his studies until 1901, when Lucette reappeared in England . She has a trip to America booked for her on the Tobakoff , the same ship that Van travels with. She tries to seduce him on the passage, but this plan is thwarted by Ada's appearance as an actress in the film they watch together in the ship's cinema. After Van prevents her from entering his cabin by saying he already has another wife with him, Lucette takes a large number of sleeping pills and commits suicide by throwing herself from the deck of the ship into the waters of the Atlantic .

In March 1905 Demon died in an airplane accident.

Later in 1905, Ada and Andrey arrive in Switzerland as part of a company trying to uncover Lucette's fortune, which is distributed among numerous banks . Van meets her and together he and Ada draw up a plan for her to leave her husband and live with Van. Since both Marina and Demon have now passed away, they believe such a plan is possible. Meanwhile, Andrey falls ill with tuberculosis during her stay in Switzerland and Ada decides that she cannot leave him until he is cured. Van and Ada split up, and Andrey succumbs to his illness 17 years later. After his death, Ada flies back to Switzerland to reunite with Van.

Part 4: Not divided (or 1 chapter) (1922)

This part consists of Van's reading of The Texture of Time, which he now transcribes while traveling to Switzerland after recording it on a dictaphone. The transcription was then changed to blend in with the description of his meeting with Ada. This part of the novel is remarkably self-reflexive and is often referred to as the "difficult" part of the novel, with some critics even claiming that they wish Nabokov had left it out entirely. Conversely, one could argue that the part of one of the most potent incantations is one of the main themes of the novel, namely the personal experience of time for one's sense of existence.

At the end of this section, Van and Ada unite to live as husband and wife.

Part 5: 6 chapters (1922-1967)

This section of the novel is the one that takes place most clearly in 1967, when Van completes his memoir. He describes his satisfaction, his relationship with his editor and assistant, the devastation of his body through time, and the continued presence of and love for Ada. This account is interspersed with comments on several events that have happened since 1922. When the cancer painfully develops in him, Van stops correcting his essentially complete but not entirely polished work and commits mutual euthanasia with Ada , they "die into the finished book, into Eden or Hades ..."

literature

  • Brian Boyd : Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness, Ann Arbor: Ardis 1985, 2nd edition 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter E. Zimmer: The Geography of Antiterra. August 18, 2009 - February 10, 2010 . On dezimmer.net, accessed October 7, 2013.