The Vane Sisters

I Know that this topic does not apply to Pale Fire much, except with Sybil, the connection to the otherworldly and perhaps acrostics I have not seen, but I couldn't end the short story with my basic summary. THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT IN THIS SHORT 20 SOME ODD PAGE TALE! I had never read any ghost stories by Nabokov and while researching last night on all his clues was kind of creepy. Every time I googled something, a creepy picture dealing with seances came up. Not the kind of research you want to be doing at 10:30 at night, and right before Halloween.

So what follows are all the clues and references I found in The Vane Sisters, and I am sure there are even more that I have missed, but I think my list is a good start. I just had to do this to satisfy my need to discuss all the information placed throughout this short ghost story.

Right off the bat the narrator writes, "the girl's college where I taught French Literature."
-So I instantly thought of Nabokov himself. Nabokov had taught at Wellseley which had begun as an all girls college, although I don't think it was when he taught there. But he also had his degree from Cambridge in Russian and FRENCH literature. Then I thought of Humbert Humbert at Beardsley. Both rather obvious connections, but I like thinking that the narrator is actually Nabokov himself and not a created character.

Next he writes about walking and writes, "...seemed to transform the whole of my being into one big eyeball rolling in the world's socket."
-At this moment I thought of Emerson's work Nature where he writes, "I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all...."

At the first mention of Sybil's suicide in chapter 2 it finally hits me. Sybil Vane was the name of the actress in Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray who kills herself when Gray refuses her. Which works for this tale as well, because "D" stopped his affair with Sybil, and Nabokov's "D" could be seen as Dorian himself.

"...a kind of passport to a casual Elysium."
-Nabokov references Greek mythology subtly throughout. Obviously with Elysium here and through Sybil's name and connection with the otherworldly. In her names connection with Erythraean Sibyl.

Nabokov also as I mentioned in class references seances/supernatural events quit a bit. The list of most of the references I caught are as follows:
-tilting table
-"...her existence was influenced by all sorts of dead friends..,"
-spiritualism. During seances visited by OSCAR WILDE, LEO TOLSTOY, ect.
-reading books by Robert Dale Owen and William James. Leaders in early American Spiritualism.
-Epworth and Tedworth (google if interested. deals with seances/poltergeists.)
-Ecto Plasm (google for sure! Extremely creepy and actually happened, rent The Haunting in Connecticut)
-Fox Sisters and anatomical castanets (google. Similar to Vane Sisters but was mostly a hoax)

HOW DOES HE KNOW ALL THIS STUFF TO REFERENCE!

Jamesian Meanderings.
-So the only thing that I could find on this dealt with an early American psychologist, William James, who was very interested in early spiritualism. Judging from the phrase I am going to guess sleep walking! If anyone finds anything else let me know please!

Then there is the paragraph I read that reveals all the clues to solving the story. Nabokov in this one paragraph references Coleridge's Kubla Khan with Mr. Porlock and Joyce's Finnegan's Wake with Anna Livia Plurabelle. Nabokov evens references himself and this particular work, giving the reader the answer to the mystery in the last line about the last paragraph in The Vane Sisters.

Lastly he names William Wilson Carcoran as an art dealer at one of Cynthia's parties. Who happened to be a private art collector that after his death left all his art to a gallery named after him in D.C.

Then of course there is the last paragraph of the work that tells the reader all.
"Icicles by Cynthia. Meter from me, Sybil."
We learn that while the narrator is writing all this, it is the sisters communicating from the other side through him! SO GOOD!

So now that you know most of the secrets I suggest you read it and actually understand the final acrostics meaning. Also please let me know if you find any other references, because I am almost positive that I missed several.

Also read Visit to a Museum if you can and Symbols and Signs. Two other very creepy tales by the master himself, Nabokov.