Tobacco Shop - “Russian Spoken Here”
The tobacco shop is advantageously situated in an expedient corner: “Martin Martinisch’s tobacco shop is located in a corner building. No wonder tobacco shops have a predilection for corners, for Martin's business is booming. The window is of modest size, but well arranged. Small mirrors make the display come alive. At the bottom, amid the hollows of hilly azure velvet, nestles a motley of cigarette boxes with names couched in the glossy international dialect that serves for hotel names as well; higher up, rows of cigars grin in their lightweight boxes.” The shop’s imagery reveals a thriving business that is tactically positioned and regimented. The organization magnifies the conspicuousness of the cigar assortments that are offered in the shop.
St. Petersburg House - “A Matter of Chance”
Vlamidir Nabokov clarifies “his most frequent recollections were of a house in St. Petersburg, of his study there, with those leather buttons on the curves of overstuffed furniture, and of his wife Lena, of whom he had had no news for five years. At present, he felt his life wasting away.” The imagery of the house illustrates Luzhin’s unconscious nostalgia which is to be reunified with his companion. Although he has not been materially there for five years, the house personifies all that Luzhin necessitates for a contented existence. Evidently, he is not gratified with his present-day, unrewarding reality.
