Subject
Filippa Rolf: Swedish Echoes in Pale Fire (fwd)
Date
Body
Stacy Schiff's book Vera contains quite substantial comment on Filippa Rolf,
the Swedish writer and poet who was in contact (of diverse nature) with the
Nabokovs from January 1961 until her death in 1978 and apparently also some
time before 1961.
In the Fall issue of The Nabokovian, no 39, I wrote a few notes on what I
perceived as a kind of elusive Swedish ether permeating Pale Fire, a book
which had fascinated me since its first appearance. At the time I was unaware
of Filippa Rolf's name, as Brian Boyd does not name her in his text (American
Years 418) and I hadn't checked the chapter note. I first heard her name in
this context at the Cambridge conference, when Peter Lubin mentioned her to
me.
I was therefore astonished to discover, on visiting family in Sweden last
month, that Filippa Rolf was a fairly close member of my mother's family
there. I have since made contact with several people who knew her well. From
what I have learned about her character, talents, interests and strange
personality I have become reasonably convinced that the special and even
unique qualities of Pale Fire, which I regard as Nabokov's masterpiece, are
directly attributable to her influence. In fact, I would even go so far as to
say that the shadowy and vanishingly obscure Professor Oscar Natt-och-Dag is
the bedrock author of the work. Proving this is another matter, and would
require a very close analysis and probably mostly conjectural reconstruction
of what passed between Rolf and Nabokov between January and December 1961.
If anyone would like to learn more about Filippa Rolf they are welcome to get
in touch with me directly.
Charles Harrison Wallace
the Swedish writer and poet who was in contact (of diverse nature) with the
Nabokovs from January 1961 until her death in 1978 and apparently also some
time before 1961.
In the Fall issue of The Nabokovian, no 39, I wrote a few notes on what I
perceived as a kind of elusive Swedish ether permeating Pale Fire, a book
which had fascinated me since its first appearance. At the time I was unaware
of Filippa Rolf's name, as Brian Boyd does not name her in his text (American
Years 418) and I hadn't checked the chapter note. I first heard her name in
this context at the Cambridge conference, when Peter Lubin mentioned her to
me.
I was therefore astonished to discover, on visiting family in Sweden last
month, that Filippa Rolf was a fairly close member of my mother's family
there. I have since made contact with several people who knew her well. From
what I have learned about her character, talents, interests and strange
personality I have become reasonably convinced that the special and even
unique qualities of Pale Fire, which I regard as Nabokov's masterpiece, are
directly attributable to her influence. In fact, I would even go so far as to
say that the shadowy and vanishingly obscure Professor Oscar Natt-och-Dag is
the bedrock author of the work. Proving this is another matter, and would
require a very close analysis and probably mostly conjectural reconstruction
of what passed between Rolf and Nabokov between January and December 1961.
If anyone would like to learn more about Filippa Rolf they are welcome to get
in touch with me directly.
Charles Harrison Wallace