Mary (Nabokov novel)

 Mary is the story of Lev Glebovich Ganin, a Russian exile and former White Guard Officer displaced by the Russian Revolution. Ganin lives in a boarding house in Berlin together with a young Russian girl named Klara, a famous Russian poet, Podtyagin his landlady, Lydia Nikolaevna Dorn and his neighbor, Aleksey Ivanovich Alfyorov, who he meets in a dark, broken-down elevator near the beginning of the story. Ganin learns from Alfyorov that Mary the first woman he fell in love with was his first love, is now his wife. He also snaps an image. Once Ganin realises this, he breaks his relationship with his partner, Lyudmila, and begins to be consumed by his memories of his experiences in Russia with Mary and her family, which Ganin notes were "perhaps the most joyful moments of his life". Ganin is captivated by Mary's dream and refuses to let her go to Alfyorov. He then attempts to reconnect with Mary who , he believes, still affectionately Ganin. Ganin later claims that he'll leave Berlin in the evening prior to when Mary arrives. The other residents of the house throw a party for him. Ganin continues to drink and intoxicate Alfyorov by drinking alcohol. As Alfyorov falls into his drunken state of sleep, he demands Ganin to set his alarm for half past seven, as Alfyorov is planning to meet Mary at the train station in the following morning. Ganin, infatuated with Mary, sets the alarm for eleven and plans to meet Mary at the train station. However, as he leaves the home, he is able to experience a moment of clarity. "The world of memories in which Ganin lived was the reality the past, which was a long time ago... Other than the image, no Mary was ever real, and never was she able to exist." Instead of getting to meet Mary, Ganin decides to take a train ride to France.