Valeria

Valeria Humbert (née Zborovski) is Humbert Humbert's first wife. The fat, "brainless" daughter of a Polish doctor, in her late twenties at the time of her marriage, she imitates a nymphet which is sufficient to make her somewhat attractive to Humbert.

Valeria eventually runs off with the Russian Colonel Maximovitch, to die in childbirth in 1945.

Biography
Valeria was born in France to Polish parents. Her father was a doctor who treated Humbert Humbert for dizzy spells & tachycardia. While her Father & Humbert played chess, Valeria would watch from her easel & paint Humbert's eyes or knuckles into her cubist paintings. The two eventually married, in an attempt to cure his nymphomania (unbeknownst to Val). The marriage lasted from 1935-1939, with Valeria revealing she was having an affair after Humbert told her they were moving to America in order to take over his uncle's business & claim his small fortune. She announced her plans for immediate divorce to Humbert before taking him to dinner with her lover, one Colonel Maximovitch. When they went home to gather her things, Humbert loses it & chases her & the Colonel away with a broom. The couple migrated to California sometime within the 1940s and took part in a year-long experiment conducted by an American ethnologist. The experiment was supposed to be on human & racial reactions to a diet of bananas & dates in a constant position on all fours. They were seen "diligently crawling about the well-swept floors of a brightly lit set of rooms, in the company of several other hired quadrupeds." They apparently received a large salary for their participation, but the experiment inevitably harmed Valeria, who died giving birth to a son in 1945.

Appearance
Valeria is described as having, "short curly blonde hair" that later "showed it's melanic root" & "downy" legs that soon showed, "prickles on a shaved shin". She is also somewhat cuttingly described as "large, puffy, short-legged, & big breasted." Humbert remarks several times on her weight gain, calling her "fat", & "poodle-headed". By the time she reached California, she was "obese", & had lost her "mobile moist mouth."

Personality
Humbert does not think too highly of Valeria, & almost never refers to her positively. He thinks very little of her art, calling it "cubistic trash" on multiple occasions. He first finds her "fluffy & frolicksome", & says the thing that attracted him to her was her imitation of a little girl. Despite calling her brainless, the majority of their marriage was comfortable & uneventful, in part due to her "muted nature." She is not loyal, as evidenced by her affair, & is volatile, dramatic, & emotional in turns.