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Ian "Marvin" Graye's Reviews > Laughter in the Dark
Laughter in the Dark
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CRITIQUE:
Darkness and Laughter
The title of Nabokov's 1932 novel alerts us to two of its concerns.
Firstly, its principal characters dwell in a darkness of their own making. Secondly, other characters, if not necessarily Nabokov himself, mock and laugh at them and their follies.
The darkness results from the moral culpability of the two major characters, Albinus and Margot, who first meet in the darkness of a cinema.
Albinus is a literary and art critic who seems to be in his late forties, possibly 50 years of age. He's married to Elizabeth and has an eight year old daughter. He's well-off financially (having inherited a considerable fortune from his father), and owns a number of homes in Berlin as well as an estate in the country.
Longing for a Thrill
Still, his lifestyle doesn't content him. Elizabeth "failed to give him the thrill for which he had grown weary with longing."
He sees 17 year old Margot at work as an usher in a cinema, and is quickly besotted by "that creature gliding about in the dark". He decides to woo her and make her his mistress.
Tippi Hedren in "The Birds"
"A Nightmare Creature With a Nightmare Mate"
Margot views Albinus as a passport to monetary and social success, as well as an acting career.
There never seems to be any passion or lust, let alone love, in their relationship. She's reluctant to end her concurrent relationship with the artist, Axel Rex, at least until Albinus has divorced Elizabeth and married her, thus legitimating their illicit relationship. Margot and Axel are equally aspirational, calculating and conniving in their relationships, betraying not just Albinus, but each other.
Margot is like a "nightmare creature...being tickled by its nightmare mate." Axel remains a thorn in the side of Albinus and Margot. In Albinus, however, "she could not hope for a repetition of the ecstasy of her first love affair." Albinus, on the other hand, is blinded by the dark hole of his credulous longing.
Fairy Tale Manner
The novel commences in a fairy tale manner:
Nabokov continues:
Thus, it's clear that Nabokov thought his novel would have a popular appeal and that his characters would provoke much laughter as they made fools of themselves.
A Snake and a Slattern
Margot is frequently described as a snake. Even Albinus refers to her as a "little slattern" and a "wicked little girl".
In the second half of the novel, various characters express their views on Margot parenthetically:
A childhood friend imagines:
Film Poster for Tony Richardson's Film of the Novel
Nabokov as Film Noir
The ending of the novel, which I'm reluctant to reveal (for spoiler reasons), suggests that Alfred Hitchcock, if not Tony Richardson (or could have made a good suspense film out of it. Perhaps, then, the story might be best enjoyed in the darkness of a cinema, with or without an usher.
SOUNDTRACK:
(view spoiler)
Darkness and Laughter
The title of Nabokov's 1932 novel alerts us to two of its concerns.
Firstly, its principal characters dwell in a darkness of their own making. Secondly, other characters, if not necessarily Nabokov himself, mock and laugh at them and their follies.
The darkness results from the moral culpability of the two major characters, Albinus and Margot, who first meet in the darkness of a cinema.
Albinus is a literary and art critic who seems to be in his late forties, possibly 50 years of age. He's married to Elizabeth and has an eight year old daughter. He's well-off financially (having inherited a considerable fortune from his father), and owns a number of homes in Berlin as well as an estate in the country.
Longing for a Thrill
Still, his lifestyle doesn't content him. Elizabeth "failed to give him the thrill for which he had grown weary with longing."
He sees 17 year old Margot at work as an usher in a cinema, and is quickly besotted by "that creature gliding about in the dark". He decides to woo her and make her his mistress.
Tippi Hedren in "The Birds"
"A Nightmare Creature With a Nightmare Mate"
Margot views Albinus as a passport to monetary and social success, as well as an acting career.
There never seems to be any passion or lust, let alone love, in their relationship. She's reluctant to end her concurrent relationship with the artist, Axel Rex, at least until Albinus has divorced Elizabeth and married her, thus legitimating their illicit relationship. Margot and Axel are equally aspirational, calculating and conniving in their relationships, betraying not just Albinus, but each other.
Margot is like a "nightmare creature...being tickled by its nightmare mate." Axel remains a thorn in the side of Albinus and Margot. In Albinus, however, "she could not hope for a repetition of the ecstasy of her first love affair." Albinus, on the other hand, is blinded by the dark hole of his credulous longing.
Fairy Tale Manner
The novel commences in a fairy tale manner:
"Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster."
Nabokov continues:
"This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling."
Thus, it's clear that Nabokov thought his novel would have a popular appeal and that his characters would provoke much laughter as they made fools of themselves.
A Snake and a Slattern
Margot is frequently described as a snake. Even Albinus refers to her as a "little slattern" and a "wicked little girl".
In the second half of the novel, various characters express their views on Margot parenthetically:
"('A lovely creature, unquestionably,' thought Lampert, 'but there is something snakelike about her.')"
"('And moreover,' reflected Lampert irrelevantly, 'this little slut is going to be the ruin of him.')"
A childhood friend imagines:
"She's going to the dogs...Ought to marry some good, simple man. I wouldn't take her, though. A fellow would never know where he was..."
Film Poster for Tony Richardson's Film of the Novel
Nabokov as Film Noir
The ending of the novel, which I'm reluctant to reveal (for spoiler reasons), suggests that Alfred Hitchcock, if not Tony Richardson (or could have made a good suspense film out of it. Perhaps, then, the story might be best enjoyed in the darkness of a cinema, with or without an usher.
SOUNDTRACK:
(view spoiler)
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Reading Progress
December 10, 2014
– Shelved
December 10, 2014
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December 10, 2014
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June 27, 2023
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Started Reading
July 5, 2023
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July 5, 2023
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July 5, 2023
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July 5, 2023
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sologdin
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Jul 05, 2023 07:30PM
Middle aged protagonist ages out of Lolita and into this adolescent鈥攄oes it have the same narrator instability?
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sologdin wrote: "Middle aged protagonist ages out of Lolita and into this adolescent鈥攄oes it have the same narrator instability?""Laughter" has an omniscient narrator, and lacks the first person Humbert Humbert narrator of "Lolita". It's very direct in its structure. Chapters are often only two or three pages long, and accelerate towards the end.
There's no sense that Albinus was a player. He was kind of good-looking, but dull, not particularly good at girls or women, and of little interest to Margot, until she saw him as an opportunity to escape relative working class poverty.
He seems to have had one major romance in his youth - with an older woman, so there is no nymphet precursor such as Annabel Leigh.
