''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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399
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stored in their minds, of a paradise which is an ex-
ternalization of the bliss young Van and Ada experience
through their love. "I accept it [Terra
= paradise]
as a state of mind", says Van to Ada, and they both
project their inner paradise onto Ardis Park, turning
the country estate into an Edenic garden, the appro-
priate setting of their love. This view is supported
by the fact that Ardis loses all its Edenic qualities
for both Van and Ada after their separation. Staying
there becomes a "dreary" affair for Ada (396), and
Van, who, at a happy stage of their relation, tells
Demon that "I would gladly spend all my scarred and
strange life here" (241), rejects this idea after he
has found out about Ada's infidelities: "Who wants
Ardis Hall! " (300).
There is however more to their love than has so
far appeared. When questioned about the incest theme
in Ada, Nabokov gave one of his teasingly evasive
answers:
If I had used incest for the purpose of
representing a possible road to happiness
or misfortune, I would have been a bestselling
didactician dealing in general
ideas. Actually, I don't give a damn for
incest one way or another.
69
Even though the answer does not do a great deal to
elucidate the problems posed by Ada, it establishes
that Nabokov is plainly as little concerned with Van's
and Ada's incest as with Humbert Humbert`'s immoralitj.
The moral implications leap into foreground only if
one reads the novel as literally o. ne.. about incest
(which its form does not encourage); however, they
lose their significance if the fact that Van and Ada