A. Bouazza: "To the question about his choice, VN
replied in the 1964 Playboy interview, reprinted in Strong Opinions (p.
26, 1st US edition): “The double rumble is, I think, very nasty, very
suggestive. It is a hateful name for a hateful person. It is also a kingly name,
but I did need a royal vibration for Humbert the Fierce and Humbert the Humble.
Lends itself also to a number of puns.” In his Keys to Lolita (pp.
8-9), Proffer discusses briefly these names, and I remember an extensive note in
Appel’s The Annotated Lolita regarding the name.
Jansy Mello: Wonderful mnemonic abilities, Abdel!. Thank
you. So, Nabokov needed " a royal vibration for Humbert the Fierce [
] Lends itself also to a number of puns". Humbert Humbert's "double rumble"
itself is quite onomatopoetic and it confirms my curiosity about the connection
between it and a collection of adumbrated words, such as "ombre"
(shade/shadow) and "umber" (somber & dark clay color). What
other apposites did Humbert deserve that were not mentioned in the
novel? (Nabokov seems to have been also fond of appositive phrases, or
so I gather)