In Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lectures on Literature”, on the chapter on Dickens (Bowers,p.120), when he notes that Krook “comes slowly up, with his green-eyed cat following at his heels” he adds: “All cats have green eyes – but notice how green these eyes are owing to the lighted candle slowly ascending the stairs.” His own eyes were greenish (or hazel?), Lolita’s were “vair” (grey-green while Lucette’s were a definite catty emerald green.

In RLSK we encounter a vanishing cat with “celadon” eyes ( a bluish/green/grey colored porcelain), so it seems that VN admitted variations in feline eye-coloring. Why then did VN assure his students that “all cats have green eyes”?