Mary (Nabokov novel)

 Mary is a story about Lev Glebovich Ganin (a Russian emigre who was also a former White Guard Officer, but was forced out of Russia due to the Russian Revolution). Ganin lives in a boardinghouse in Berlin, along with an 18-year-old Russian girl named Klara, an old Russian poet, Podtyagin his landlady, Lydia Nikolaevna Dorn and his neighbour, Aleksey Ivanovich Alfyorov, who he meets in a dark, shattered elevator at the beginning of the novel. Through a series of conversations with Alfyorov and a photo, Ganin discovers that his long-lost love of his life, Mary, is now the wife of his rather unappealing neighbour, and that she will be joining him soon. When Ganin realises this, he decides to end the relationship with his current partner, Lyudmila, and begins to be consumed by his memories of his time in Russia with Mary, which Ganin notes were "perhaps the most joyful moments of his life". In awe of his dream of Mary and in awe of the fact that he cannot let Alfyorov take her away, Ganin contrives to reunite with Mary whom he believes still loves him. Eventually, Ganin claims that he will be leaving Berlin on the night prior to when Mary arrives and that his friends will throw a party for him on the night prior to. Ganin continues to get drunk Alfyorov by drinking alcohol. Alfyorov is about to sink into a drunken sleep when Ganin requests Ganin to set his alarm to half-past-seven because Alfyorov is planning to meet Mary at the station the next day. Ganin fascinated by Mary set the alarm for 11 and plans on meeting her at the station. He has a momentary clarity as he leaves the home. "The universe of memory Ganin lived in was transformed into the reality it was: The distant past... Without the image, no Mary existed or would have existed." Ganin instead of meeting Mary, he decides to travel by train for France.