How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
Back into the past, back into the past, as I did every time I met her, repeating the whole accumulation of the plot from the very beginning up to the last increment — thus in Russian fairy tales the already told is bunched up again at every new turn of the story. (9)
Memory in this story renders the narrative somewhat mystical. Look at how Victor compares his story to a fairy tale…
Quote #2
I cannot recall why we had all wandered out of the sonorous hall into the still darkness […]; did the watchmen invite us to look at a sullen red glow in the sky, portent of nearing arson? Possibly. Did we go to admire an equestrian statue of ice sculptured near the pond by the Swiss tutor of my cousins? Quite as likely. My memory revives only on the way back to the brightly symmetrical mansion. (11)
Notice that Victor remembers some details and forgets others. There isn’t really any logical sense to this. We’ll see as the story progresses that even the most trivial particulars are recalled.
Quote #3
…and that melody, the pain, the offence, the link between hymen and death evoked by the rhythm, and the voice itself of the dead singer, which accompanied the recollection as the sole owner of the song, gave me no rest for several hours after Nina's departure and even later arose at increasing intervals like the last flat little waves sent to the beach by a passing ship, lapping ever more frequently and dreamily, or like the bronze agony of a vibrating belfry after the bell ringer has already re-seated himself in the cheerful circle of his family. (21)
This is a great image to represent the way memory works in "Spring in Fialta." It’s a series of layers, one built over the other, all adding up to a final product which is no more than the sum of its iterative pieces.
Quote #4
…and I remember once saying to him as I braved the mockery of his encouraging nods that, were I a writer, I should allow only my heart to have imagination, and for the rest rely upon memory, that long-drawn sunset shadow of one's personal truth. (22)
If memory is a "shadow" of truth, then we have to question its accuracy. Victor is constantly calling into question the validity of his memories and forcing us to doubt his narrative.
Quote #5
Was there any practical chance of life together with Nina, life I could barely imagine, for it would be penetrated, I knew, with a passionate, intolerable bitterness and every moment of it would be aware of a past, teeming with protean partners. No, the thing was absurd. (31)
Victor defines his relationship with Nina as a series of past events. Because she exists for him in memory, her presence is always mystical, and the thought of a future is impossible. In a way, the rules of the story dictate her death – she isn’t allowed a future.
Quote #6
Fialta consists of the old town and of the new one; here and there, past and present are interlaced, struggling either to disentangle themselves or to thrust each other out; each one has its own methods: the newcomer fights honestly […] whereas the sneaky old-timer creeps out from behind a corner in the shape of some little street on crutches or the steps of stairs leading nowhere. (32)
Looks like setting is cleverly crafted in "Spring in Fialta," as if we expected anything less from Nabokov. You can read more in Shmoop’s discussion of setting, but for the time being we can note that Fialta, like Victor and Nina’s relationship, is a struggle of the idealist past vs. the very real present.
Quote #7
…and overheard one man saying to another, "Funny, how they all smell alike, burnt leaf through whatever perfume they use, those angular dark-haired girls," and as it often happens, a trivial remark related to some unknown topic coiled and clung to one's own intimate recollection, a parasite of its sadness. (40)
While there is no real logic to the memories which remain with Victor, we can identify perhaps an emotional significance to even these small details. What this man who is speaking has done is to describe Nina as just any other woman – at least like any other "angular dark-haired girl." We can see why this would stick with Victor, to whom Nina is anything BUT ordinary.