''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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He tries to find out about Sebastian's childhood,
investigates his flat, collects "small and trivial
facts" where they are offered, he notes down his
brother's "trivial habits" and listens patiently
to anecdotes. He goes on long journeys to meet and
question many people.
For long stretches the reader is allowed to "feel
safe". But then parody sets in. It is very subtle
at first, so subtle that one is hardly aware of it.
There are some sentences which are slightly out of
tune with their context and with the purpose of the
book. True to Fowler's definition that the distinguishing
mark of parody is "analytic mimicry"18,
even these mimic the style and the procedures of
biography. so perfectly as to be hardly conspicuous.
It is only later in the book that their number increases
until parody takes over altogether for a
while, quite openly and unsubtly, illustrating the
process that Rodway describes: "All good qualities
are in danger of losing vitality or relevance and
hardening into mannerism. Parody indicates the endproduct
of such a process. "19
After his journey to Lausanne where he hoped in
vain to learn something about the child Sebastian
from their old nurse, V travels to London to visit
his brother's flat, and it is here that his proceed-
ings first begin to appear somewhat questionable and
have a touch of parody about them. He goes about his
work somewhat like a detective in the Sherlock Holmes
tradition (or as he imagines such a detective would