Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
"Ada or Ardor" is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, published in 1969, that explores complex themes of love, obsession, and the nature of family relationships. The narrative centers on Van Veen, who discovers his passion for his cousin Ada during a summer at Ardis Hall, only to later learn that they are full siblings. This revelation intensifies the incestuous nature of their affair, which is marked by intense physicality and emotional turbulence. Ada's character is portrayed as irresistibly sexual, leading her into relationships with other men, which provokes jealousy and revenge in Van.
The story unfolds through a series of dramatic events, including betrayals, tragic losses, and existential musings on time and memory. As Van delves into psychology and philosophy, he grapples with the ramifications of their love and the deaths of those around them, including Ada's sister, Lucette. Ultimately, the novel culminates in a poignant exploration of life and death, as Van and Ada plan a mutual suicide in their old age, seeking to affirm their enduring bond in a final act of love. Nabokov's rich prose and intricate narrative structure invite readers to reflect on the complexities of human relationships and the passage of time.
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Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
First published: 1969
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction
Time of plot: Alternate late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Locale: Antiterra, an alternate world on the North American continent
Principal characters
Ivan “Van” Veen , the principal protagonist, a man of wealth and privilegeAda Veen , Van’s purported cousin, who is actually his sisterDementy “Demon” Veen , father of Van and AdaDaniel “Dan” Veen , Demon’s ineffectual brother, Ada’s putative fatherAqua Veen , Demon’s wife, Van’s putative motherMarina Veen , Daniel’s wife, Demon’s lover, and the mother of Van and AdaLucette Veen , daughter of Daniel and Marina
The Story:
Van Veen briefly sees a girl in an antique shop but never speaks to her. Subsequently, he discovers Ada, his cousin, during a summer at Ardis Hall, his ancestral family estate. He falls passionately in love with her. Van soon gives himself over to the physicality of passion, and the two carry on a love affair. During this period, they also discover that the supposed facts about their family are all an elaborate sham and in fact the two of them are full siblings, making the incestuous nature of their relationship far more serious than if they were merely cousins.
Ada is intensely physical and demonstrates an inability to refuse anyone in sexual need. As a result, she becomes involved with two other young men, Phillip Rack and Percy de Prey. When Van discovers her infidelity, he seeks revenge, only to be distracted and wounded by an extraneous soldier named Trapper. As a result, both of his rivals die by other hands, and Van ends up in a rather shallow physical relationship with Percy de Prey’s cousin Cordula.
During Van’s subsequent youth, he studies psychology and whiles his time away at a chain of brothels called the Villa Venus, the sexual equivalent of a fast-food restaurant. His half sister Lucette declares her love for him despite being courted by one Andrey Vinelander. Van accepts her interest, and they cohabit in an apartment that formerly belonged to Cordula de Prey.
After Dan Veen dies as a result of a hallucinatory episode, Demon Veen effectively orders Van to end his relationship with Ada. Van attempts suicide, but the gun misfires. He then hunts down a former servant, Kim Beauharnais, an amateur photographer who has captured evidence of the affair with Ada and is using it for blackmail. Van beats Kim so savagely that Kim is left blind, a fitting punishment in the tradition of the original Peeping Tom, who was struck blind for spying upon Lady Godiva as she rode nude through Coventry to spare it from the plague.
Ada marries Andrey Vinelander, while Van drowns his grief in travel and debauchery in Europe. When Van encounters Lucette in England, she attempts to seduce him. However, everything goes awry when they watch a movie called Don Juan’s Last Fling and find that Ada is one of the actresses. Lucette ends up taking an overdose of sleeping pills, throwing herself off the steamship on which they are traveling, and drowning in the Atlantic Ocean.
With Lucette dead, Ada and her husband Andrey go to Switzerland in an effort to locate various secret bank accounts in which Lucette has hidden a considerable fortune. Van meets them and conspires with Ada to free her of Andrey. However, their plan is foiled when Andrey contracts tuberculosis, which leads Ada to decide she cannot abandon him.
Ada and Van remain separated for seventeen years, during which time Van begins to delve into philosophy as well as psychology. He theorizes on the nature of time as personal experience, eventually producing a lecture titled “The Texture of Time.” When they are finally reunited in Switzerland, they being to live together as a married couple. When they reach old age, Van develops cancer. He and Ada contrive to commit mutual suicide in a final act of love.
Bibliography
Connolly, Julian W., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Collection of essays offers a good introduction to Nabokov’s life and writings. Topics addressed include Nabokov as a storyteller, a Russian writer, a modernist, and a poet, as well as his transition to writing in English.
De la Durantaye, Leland. Style Is Matter: The Moral Art of Vladimir Nabokov. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2007. While focusing on Lolita, this study also looks at Nabokov’s other works to discuss the ethics of art in Nabokov’s fiction. Asserts that although some readers find Nabokov to be cruel, his works contain a moral message—albeit one that is skillfully hidden.
Dembo, L. S., ed. Nabokov: The Man and His Work. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. Collection of scholarly essays on Nabokov’s literary techniques.
Field, Andrew. VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Crown, 1977. Scholarly biography that relates Nabokov’s life experiences to his work as a writer.
Glynn, Michael. Vladimir Nabokov: Bergsonian and Russian Formalist Influences in His Novels. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Glynn disagrees with other critics who have called Nabokov a Symbolist writer, arguing that he was an anti-Symbolist who was influenced by the philosopher Henri Bergson and by Russian Formalism. Bergson’s philosophy revolves around the nature of time and the human experience of it, making his influence on Nabokov particularly important to Ada.
Grayson, Jane, Arnold B. McMillin, and Priscilla Meyer, eds. Nabokov’s World. 2 vols. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Collection of essays written by an international group of Nabokov scholars, providing comprehensive discussion of his work. Presents analyses of individual novels as well as coverage of topics such as intertextuality in Nabokov’s works and the literary reception of his writings.
Hyde, G. M., ed. Vladimir Nabokov: America’s Russian Novelist. London: Marion Boyars, 1977. Critical essays focusing on the interaction of Russian and American culture in Nabokov’s writing.
Quennell, Peter, ed. Vladimir Nabokov: A Tribute. New York: William Morrow, 1980. A collection of reflections upon Nabokov’s literary legacy by major literary critics.
Wood, Michael. The Magician’s Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. Examines Nabokov’s work in the context of the striving for artistic excellence.