COLETTE by Vladimir Nabokov

1. The description of the wire movement seen from the compartment of Nord Express is excellent: 　　“The door of the compartment was open and I could see the corridor window, where the wires—six thin black wires—were doing their best to slant up, to ascend skyward, despite the lightning blows dealt them by one telegraph pole after another; but just as all six, in a triumphant swoop of pathetic elation, were about to reach the top of the window, a particularly vicious blow would bring them down, as low as they had ever been, and they would have to start all over again.” How vivid, minute, precise, elaborate, and humorous the description. 2. The scene near the end is poetic: 　　“I try again to recall the name of Colette’s dog—and, sure enough, along those remote beaches, over the glossy evening sands of the past, where each footprint slowly fills up with sunset water, here it comes, here it comes, echoing and vibrating: Floss, Floss, Floss!” 3.　　“I had a gold coin that I assumed would pay for our elopement. Where did I want to take her? Spain? America?” 　　How skillfully the writer describes what a ten-year-old boy thinks! He makes the reader go back to his childhood days. He succeeds in writing “Collette” from a little boy’s viewpoint. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899-1977) was a multilingual Russian novelist, poet and short story writer.