Clues to Quilty

One of the things i love the most about Lolita, is the way it seems made up of many little clues and puzzle pieces that the reader is meant to put together. It seems everything in Nabokov's writing, every word and every name is there on purpose, everything has meaning. I Loved how Nabokov gave little clues about Clare Quilty, more than just "Waterproof."

In his mention of Quilty in the "Who's Who in the Limelight" that he finds in the prison library he follows Quilty with "Quine, Dolores. Born in 182, in Dayton , Ohio. Studied for stage at American Academy. First played in Ottawa in 1900. Made New York Debut in 1904 in Never Talk to Strangers. Has disappeared since in [ a list of some thirty plays follows]." I love how after Quilty a Dolores is mentioned first as making a debut in a piece called "Never Talk to Strangers," a fitting title for the situation that Dolores Haze found herself in and that she disappeared. The mentioning of a Dolores disappearing in the same breath as Clare Quilty appears to be a first clue.
Quilty is also the man at the Enchanted Huntress who has the odd conversation with Humbert the first night he is with Lolita. He asks Humbert on page 127, " Where the devil did you get her?" and after Humbert says that she is his daughter Quilty replied " You lie- she's not" both of these comments though sound at first like misunderstandings on the part of Humbert. The real hint comes when Quilty says "Sorry. I'm pretty drunk. Good night. That child of yours needs a lot of sleep. Sleep is a rose, as the Persians say. Smoke?" This is later compared with the passage on page 262, when Humbert is again at the Enchanted Huntress, "Wine, wine, wine, quipped the author of Dark Age who refused to be photographed, may suit a Persian bubble bird, but i say give me rain, rain, rain on the shingle roof for roses and inspiration every time."

The similarities in the two, the Persians and the roses, are a clue to the reader that it was in fact Clare Quilty who was at the Enchanted Huntress that first night.