A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow

by

Amor Towles

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Nina Kulikova Character Analysis

One of the first friends the Count makes during his imprisonment in the hotel. At the start of the novel, Nina is a precocious nine-year-old who is obsessed with the aristocracy and the rules and etiquette of being a princess, which the Count is happy to explain to her. In return, Nina also helps alleviate some of the Count’s boredom, as she explores the hotel with him and shows him each back room and hidden passageway. She does so by way of a passkey that she has acquired, which she eventually gifts to him on Christmas. But gradually, as Nina grows older, she becomes more serious, more immersed in her schooling, and a very loyal Communist Party member. The Count watches her transformation with a kind of fatherly concern, as he hopes that she will not miss the joys of youth. At seventeen, she joins an agricultural planning committee and travels to Ivanovo to aid in agricultural collectivization. But when she sees millions of people starving as a result of the Party’s efforts, she and her new husband’s loyalty becomes tested. When her husband is arrested eight years later and sent to Siberia, she brings her five-year-old daughter Sofia to the Metropol, asking if the Count can watch her while she goes to find her husband. Unfortunately, Nina never returns, continuing the narrative pattern in which characters who are unable to accept the values of the new Russia become completely exiled from it.

Nina Kulikova Quotes in A Gentleman in Moscow

The A Gentleman in Moscow quotes below are all either spoken by Nina Kulikova or refer to Nina Kulikova. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Imprisonment, Freedom, and Purpose Theme Icon
).
Book 1, An Appointment Quotes

Ever since its opening in 1905, the hotel’s suites and restaurants had been a gathering spot for the glamorous, influential, and erudite; but the effortless elegance on display would not have existed without the services of the lower floor.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Around and About Quotes

For if a room that exists under the governance, authority, and intent of others seems smaller than it is, then a room that exists in secret can, regardless of its dimensions, seem as vast as one cares to imagine.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Arachne’s Art Quotes

With the slightest turn of the wrist the shards of glass tumble into a new arrangement. The blue cap of the bellhop is handed from one boy to the next, a dress as yellow as a canary is stowed in a trunk, a little red guidebook is updated with the new names of streets, and through Emile’s swinging door walks Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov—with the white dinner jacket of the Boyarsky draped across his arm.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova, Andrey Duras, Emile Zhukovsky
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Antics, Antitheses, an Accident Quotes

In the end, a parent's responsibility could not be more simple: To bring a child safely into adulthood so that she could have a chance to experience a life of purpose and, God willing, contentment.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova, Sofia
Page Number: 309
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 5, Anecdotes Quotes

Looking back, it seems to me that there are people who play an essential role at every turn […] as if Life itself has summoned them once again to help fulfill its purpose. Well, since the day I was born, Sofia, there was only one time when Life needed me to be in a particular place at a particular time, and that was when your mother brought you to the lobby of the Metropol.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (speaker), Nina Kulikova, Sofia
Page Number: 420-421
Explanation and Analysis:
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Nina Kulikova Quotes in A Gentleman in Moscow

The A Gentleman in Moscow quotes below are all either spoken by Nina Kulikova or refer to Nina Kulikova. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Imprisonment, Freedom, and Purpose Theme Icon
).
Book 1, An Appointment Quotes

Ever since its opening in 1905, the hotel’s suites and restaurants had been a gathering spot for the glamorous, influential, and erudite; but the effortless elegance on display would not have existed without the services of the lower floor.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Around and About Quotes

For if a room that exists under the governance, authority, and intent of others seems smaller than it is, then a room that exists in secret can, regardless of its dimensions, seem as vast as one cares to imagine.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Arachne’s Art Quotes

With the slightest turn of the wrist the shards of glass tumble into a new arrangement. The blue cap of the bellhop is handed from one boy to the next, a dress as yellow as a canary is stowed in a trunk, a little red guidebook is updated with the new names of streets, and through Emile’s swinging door walks Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov—with the white dinner jacket of the Boyarsky draped across his arm.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova, Andrey Duras, Emile Zhukovsky
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Antics, Antitheses, an Accident Quotes

In the end, a parent's responsibility could not be more simple: To bring a child safely into adulthood so that she could have a chance to experience a life of purpose and, God willing, contentment.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, Nina Kulikova, Sofia
Page Number: 309
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 5, Anecdotes Quotes

Looking back, it seems to me that there are people who play an essential role at every turn […] as if Life itself has summoned them once again to help fulfill its purpose. Well, since the day I was born, Sofia, there was only one time when Life needed me to be in a particular place at a particular time, and that was when your mother brought you to the lobby of the Metropol.

Related Characters: The Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (speaker), Nina Kulikova, Sofia
Page Number: 420-421
Explanation and Analysis: