Spring in Fialta’s opening line, “Spring in Fialta is cloudy and dull,” (Nabokov 413) is quite an atypical beginning for Nabokov. This line, coming from a man who is overly concerned with trifles, brings up many questions. Is Nabokov intentionally leaving out the trifles of Fialta here at the beginning? If so, why? Perhaps the answer to this question is that Nabokov intends for the line in question to be a double entendre referring to both the town and the story itself. On the narrative level, Nabokov leaves little to the reader’s imagination. The story is dull and commonplace. Moreover, I found Douglas Fowler’s criticism of the story to be off the mark and reaching. Fowler is looking too deeply into a cut and dry romantic parody, which bears a striking resemblance to Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. Nina’s imminent death is mentioned all over this story. These statements are so direct that it cannot be called foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is much more subtle, like seeing a dead bird or something. Foreshadowing is definitely not like what is in Spring in Fialta, which is more like, “Yup, she’s gonna die.” For example, the lunch with Nina where, “for the last time in her life, was busy eating the shellfish of which she was so fond,” (Nabokov 427). There are many more statements, some not quite as direct as these, but direct nonetheless such as when Victor is imagining her:Had I to submit before judges or our earthly existence a specimen of her average pose, I would have perhaps placed her leaning upon a counter at Cook’s, left calf crossing right shin, left toe tapping floor, sharp elbows and coin-spilling bag on the counter, while the employee, pencil in hand, pondered with her over the plan of an eternal sleeping car. (Nabokov 417)Also, very early on, Victor says he “cannot imagine any heavenly firm of brokers that might consent to arrange me a m...
