"La Bibliothèque Rose" was a collection Uncle Ruka read with delight,
and also Nabokov. Visiting his own nursery after his uncle died,
he leafed through them with tender affection and, even, a special sense of
security and permanence ( Speak,Memory*).
"Suzette" is also mentioned by Nabokov, but I cannot distinguish both
series in my mind because, as a young girl, the editions in
Portuguese came under a different name ( "Les Malheurs de Sophie" by Mme.
Ségur perhaps belongs to the first collection, while the adventures of "Sir
Jerry" pertain to the other).
Wondering about young Annabel's bobbed hair, at the time HH experienced his
"Riviera love," I thought the illustrations about French little girls we
find in the covers of the Suzette editions might provide a clue
about Annabel's hair.
btw. Some time ago a participant inquired about the words that
designates the opposite of "Poshlost". I always thought it could be found in any
regular dictionary of Russian and that Nabokov had simply coined a variant,
"poshlust", that means the same thing (but joing the sense of "posh"
and "lust" in English). .In my mind the best example is Luzhin's fiancé's
home in Berlin, attempting a perfect imitation of a Russian welcoming
home...
..........................................................
* -
"A sense of security, of well-being, of summer warmth
pervades my memory. That robust reality makes a ghost of the present. The mirror
brims with brightness; a bumblebee has entered the room and bumps against the
ceiling. Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will
ever die."