How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I was annoyed at going to a fascinating region in mid-November, long after the collecting season was over, having never been very good at digging for pupae (though, eventually, I did turn up a few beneath a big oak in our Crimean garden). (12.3.1)
In the early days of exile, Vladimir didn't yet understand the gravity of the situation. After all, they were still in Russia, and there was still plenty of time for butterfly collecting. We don't blame him for focusing on such things, however. Living as normally as possible is as good a coping technique as any.
Quote #5
...until the writing of a novel relieved me of that fertile emotion, the loss of my country was equated for me with the loss of my love. (12.4.1)
Ice cream works for us, but whatever floats your boat.
Quote #6
The break in my own destiny affords me in retrospect a syncopal kick that I would not have missed for worlds. Ever since that exchange of letters with Tamara, homesickness has been with me a sensuous and particular matter. (12.5.3)
Nabokov links interrupted letters from his first girlfriend Tamara with his interrupted life as a Russian. But how are romantic love and patriotic love the same? (And anyway, didn't Vladimir, like, break up with Tamara kinda-sorta before the Nabokovs even left for Yalta?)