In
part 1, Chapter 29 of Lolita, Humbert, standing above the sleeping
girl, says “For at least two minutes I waited and strained on the brink, like
that tailor with his homemade parachute forty years ago when about to jump
from the Eiffel Tower” (AnLo 128). Oddly, Appel provides no
annotation.
The
tailor in question is Franz Reichelt, and his leap was fatal. VN must have
seen the newsreel (see link) below, as most of it is taken up with ill-fated
Franz standing on the brink. Humbert’s image is lively enough on its own, but
I have to say that it takes on a new flavor after one watches the
film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BepyTSzueno
Matt
Roth