Mary (Nabokov novel)
Mary (, Mašen'ka) is the debut novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published under the pen name V. Sirin in 1926 by Russian-language publisher "Slovo". Plot summary Mary is the story of Lev Glebovich Ganin, a Russian émigré and former White Guard Officer displaced by the Russian Revolution. Ganin is now living in a boarding house in Berlin, along with a young Russian girl, Klara, an old Russian poet, Podtyagin, his landlady, Lydia Nikolaevna Dorn and his neighbour, Aleksey Ivanovich Alfyorov, whom he meets in a dark, broken-down elevator at the beginning of the novel. Through a series of conversations with Alfyorov and a photograph, Ganin discovers that his long-lost first love, Mary, is now the wife of his rather unappealing neighbour, and that she will be joining him soon. As Ganin realizes this, he ends his relationship with his current girlfriend, Lyudmila, and begins to be consumed by his memories of his time in Russia with Mary, which Ganin notes were "perhaps the happiest days of his life". Enthralled by his vision of Mary and unable to let Alfyorov have her, Ganin contrives to reunite with Mary, who he believes still loves him. Eventually, Ganin claims that he will leave Berlin the night before Mary is to arrive and his fellow residents throw a party for him the night before. Ganin steadily plies Alfyorov with alcohol, heavily intoxicating him. Just before Alfyorov falls into his drunken sleep, he asks Ganin to set his alarm clock for half past seven, as Alfyorov intends to pick up Mary at the train station the next morning. The infatuated Ganin instead sets the clock for eleven and plans to meet Mary at the train station himself. However, as he leaves the house, he has a moment of clarity. "The world of memories in which Ganin had dwelt became what it was in reality: the distant past... Other than that image no Mary existed, nor could exist." Instead of meeting Mary, Ganin decides to board a train to France. A secondary, minor plot concerns an old Russian poet, Anton Sergeyevich Podtyagin, who appears to be an older version of Ganin. He frequently expresses that his life dedicated to poetry has been a waste. Podtyagin desires to eventually leave Berlin and arrive in Paris, but fails to do so on several occasions due to a series of unfortunate events (i.e. loses passport). Characters in Mary Lev Glebovich Ganin – The protagonist of the novel; a young displaced Russian writer in Berlin who is unable to forget Mary, his first love. Aleksey Ivanovich Alfyorov – The husband of Mary and the neighbour of Ganin. Lydia Nikolaevna Dorn – The landlady of Ganin. An old Russian woman who inherited the boarding house after her German husband died. Lyudmila Borisovna Rubanski – Ganin's girlfriend in the opening chapters of the novel. Klara – A young Russian girl living in the same building as Ganin. She harbors an intense attraction to him. Anton Sergeyevich Podtyagin – An old Russian poet