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

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II. The Defence Pale Fire Transparent Things Despair
- 210 - THEDEFENCE R. H. W. Dillard, discussing Nabokov's novels, discovers in them close affinities to Russian literature. One of its characteristics is, he says, that its world is ... one in which a coincidence is a controlled event and in which the creative freedom of man is involved in the discovery of the pattern of his destiny rather than in forming the future himself out of a chaos of possibilities. In various ways a number of Nabokov's novels illustrate the points Dillard makes about Russian literature. The early novel The Defence, and two novels which Nabokov wrote when he had long begun to consider himself an American writer: Pale Fire and Transparent Things, seem to continue the Russian tradition. Nabokov makes the "discovery of the pattern" part of his quest for "true reality". People do not normally see more than the "average reality", or even only the "thin veneer of immediate reality", of their lives: what they see appears to them chaotic. The events and incidents of their lives do not seem to them to be in any way logically connected but seem to follow each other haphazardly and without any recognizable design or purpose. None of the novels quoted, however, leaves any doubt about the fact that "a coincidence a con- `is trolled event". Behind the seemingly chaotic surface and "average reality" another (true) reality is re- vealed. In it each event and incident can be seen to have its function and purpose, and in it even the
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''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest fo
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Abstract Nabokov once said that "re
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Introduction
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-2- granting that the Bolshevist an
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-4- consent, was motivated by the a
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-6- on the aspects of life that int
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-8- importance but its art, only it
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- 10 - of. the novels, consist in t
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- 12 - life with its hazards and in
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- 14 - lives of individual persons,
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- 16 - is convinced to really know
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- 18 - hopeless, but Nabokov does n
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- 20 - for the artist, is expressed
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- 22 - a new, wholly artistic reali
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- 24 - way, and this knowledge and
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- 26 - internal evidence of Invitat
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- 28 - Admittedly not all of Naboko
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- 30 - "tr. ue reality" in that it
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- 32 - the manner in which the subj
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- 34 - The case is quite similar in
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- 36 - lines of play 11120 will in
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- 38 - him knowledge surpassing tha
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- 40 - the present. This act of rec
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- 42 - design in the life of Martin
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- 44 - Martin's mother of her son's
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- 46 - is blind where his wife and
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- 48 - serious and profound experie
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I. The Eye Pnin Lolita; Laughter*in
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- 51 - novel. They illustrate how p
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- 53 - tearing the banknote into li
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- 55 - have before: after the suici
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- 57 - imagination of Gretchen best
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- 59 - deed been through an experie
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- 61 - there must be some "model" a
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- 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
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- 65 - For the sake of convenience
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- 67 - Pnin's appearance is comic,
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- 69 - all-the time. He suffers an
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- 71 - existence" (13). In his pres
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- 73 - is going to give, on his per
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- 75 - exist in such big sea" (60).
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- 77 - directly from Pnin's peculia
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- 79 - them at least 10ok like his
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- 81 - indeed only the very thinnes
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- 83 - but the group of academics w
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- 85 - "schools and trends", and is
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- 87 - which induces the reader to
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- 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
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- 91 - More depth and reality are a
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- 93 - cp. 180). The narrator also
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95 - being accurate in every point,
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- 97 - standing of a "truly human b
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- 99 - eternal beauty, and his conv
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- 101 - One luckless early critic w
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- 103 - says "well-read" Humbert Hu
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- 105 - surface, into the initial m
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- 107 - age. She was the "initial g
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- 109 - and implies in the parody t
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- 111 - He is equally inaccurate in
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- 113 - with Quilty; and, of course
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- 115 - or to hold her on his knee
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- 117 - ations ) (98). And he descr
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- 119 - a strident, harsh high voic
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- 121 - When Humbert talks of his d
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- 123 -- could victimize her poor d
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- 125 - this twelve-year-old girl s
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- 127 - done her morning duty" (161
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- 129 - experience, up to a certain
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- 131 - her: "... -a life full of t
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- 133 - Looking at it for a moment
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- 135 - and Axel Rex delightful. Bu
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- 137 - critics have made her, and
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- 139 - not record images of the sy
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- 141 - ous hallucination" (287). 6
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- 143 - No hereafter is acceptable
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- 145 - be possible for him to be t
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- 147 - and it is also appropriate
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- 149 - But Humbert's view of Lolit
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- 151 - the truth of the theory dev
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- 153 - part of it. Even with the i
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- 155 - THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN
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- 157. - consistent set of characte
Page 165 and 166: - 159 - gathered from various sourc
Page 167 and 168: - 161 - a very close one, and it se
Page 169 and 170: - 163 - tiously follows all the mov
Page 171 and 172: - 165 - go about it), behaving as i
Page 173 and 174: - 167 - infinite trouble what he co
Page 175 and 176: - 169 - What were the things that r
Page 177 and 178: - 171 share", as a good biographer
Page 179 and 180: - 173 - seems to him too colourless
Page 181 and 182: 175 - parody of what Stegner calls
Page 183 and 184: - 177 - that lead to it, he is sing
Page 185 and 186: - 179 - the time during which he li
Page 187 and 188: - 181 - France. He is tormented by
Page 189 and 190: - 183 - on the last page of the nov
Page 191 and 192: - 185 - what he wants to find, that
Page 193 and 194: - 187 - would not see him. Somewhat
Page 195 and 196: - 189 - he falls back on passages f
Page 197 and 198: - 191 - ticism as one possible way
Page 199 and 200: - 193 - The passages betray not onl
Page 201 and 202: - 195 - This "mental jerk" grants k
Page 203 and 204: - 197 - clear, and the harmony and
Page 205 and 206: - 199 - initiated the insight. In l
Page 207 and 208: - 201 - himself, and in it V appear
Page 209 and 210: - 203 - novels of Sebastian Knight,
Page 211 and 212: - 205 - All those that knew Sebasti
Page 213 and 214: - 207 - in his opinion not have for
Page 215: - 209 - others as his remoteness an
Page 219 and 220: - 212 - his own future, and it beco
Page 221 and 222: - 214 - Unlike Shade, however, Luzh
Page 223 and 224: - 216 - has recognized as the basic
Page 225 and 226: - 218 - The sensitive reader dislik
Page 227 and 228: - 220 - The individual parts have p
Page 229 and 230: - 222 - for the overall comic effec
Page 231 and 232: - 224 - Americans of today. "24 He
Page 233 and 234: - 226 - learn anything, to wrap it
Page 235 and 236: - 228 - exhausted. Kinbote uses it
Page 237 and 238: - 230 - (24-25). He talks about how
Page 239 and 240: - 232 - "Parents" (1,71), "my bedro
Page 241 and 242: - 234 - commentary, and they also o
Page 243 and 244: - 236 - forbidden knowledge of whic
Page 245 and 246: - 238 - than he thought it was46: B
Page 247 and 248: - 240 - following the road of its r
Page 249 and 250: - 242 - actually sees Kinbote, lose
Page 251 and 252: - 244 - emerges that the man whom h
Page 253 and 254: - 246 - sions, shows that even the
Page 255 and 256: - 248 - superficially is about. He
Page 257 and 258: - 250 - "really" Kinbote who has wr
Page 259 and 260: - 252 - standing' of the poem do no
Page 261 and 262: - 254 - Shade mentions a famous fil
Page 263 and 264: - 256 - is left-handed (180) and he
Page 265 and 266: - 258 - The sea's a thief, whose li
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- 260 - much a person even on the l
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- 262 - In the relationship between
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- 264 - even for his own death. It
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- 266 - TRANSPARENT THINGS An old N
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- 268 - the name as if it were simp
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- 270- Armande that has brought him
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- 272 - a conscious effort. Things
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- 274 - intention either to convey
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- 276 - past with utmost precision
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- 278 - Hugh Person ignores a vague
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- 280 - the wall which in his wakin
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- 282 - thus opening the view into
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- 284 - tain moments he positively
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- 286 - We thought that he had in h
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- 288 - The thought throws more lig
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- 290 - That Nabokov does consider
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- 292 - which strangely prefigures
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- 294 - become no doubt a new bible
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- 296 - It probably is Mr. R. 's ph
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- 298 - DESPAIR Despair1, though wr
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- 300 - rendering a certain sound t
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- 302 - I have grown much too used
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- 304 - dimensions of artistic crea
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- 306 - when he starts writing his
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- 308 - in its capability of photog
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- 310- next morning, none would bel
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- 312 - To the end, then, he remain
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- 314 - tangible double of himself,
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- 316 - this attack of his second s
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- 318 - ... the ruddy horror of my
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- 320 - only a limited number of su
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- 321 - BENDSINISTER INVITATIONTOAB
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- 323 - the Dark Comedies of the Tw
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- 325 - and that one has first to p
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- 327 - the absurd fate he himself
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- 329 - perhaps in some archaic let
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- 331 - this fantasy with bits of L
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- 333 - in the solution it offers.
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- 335 - no more than the strange an
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- 337 - clown (IB, 104-105). And th
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- 339 - of the original still shine
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- 341 - each of them. There is Mart
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- 343 - "cleared his throat and sof
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- 345 - and then perhaps we shall s
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- 347 - our own world , and with it
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- 349 - the river we see him fishin
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- 351 - inspired by a picture on wh
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- 353 - do not conceal them must di
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- 355 - also the only one who can i
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- 357 - (IB, 26) and only his doubl
Page 367 and 368:
- 359 - Cincinnatus no longer what
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- 361 - He speculates about time in
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- 363 - ADA Ada1 has more than any
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- 365 - combine to form the surface
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- 367 - ... a string of stock scene
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- 369 - more confusing by the great
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- 371 - of aspens; they embraced,..
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- 373 - aux caprices de son age. «
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- 375 - pipes into "borborygmic con
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- 377 - Swann et la Lesbie de Catul
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- 379 - in quite a new light and de
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- 381 - of a comic strip cartoon [1
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- 383 - and van's divans and cushio
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- 385 - ernized barracks for misfit
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- 387 - (385). Van himself is calle
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- 38-9 - "Don't forget normal adult
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- 391 - Ada have an equally profoun
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- 393 - her, and telling himself "t
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- 395 - agents from an alien countr
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- 397 -. - cribed by Aristophanes i
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- 399 - stored in their minds, of a
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- 401 - Since nature was traditiona
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- 403 and the Present. Like his cre
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- 405 - way one may wish and try to
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- 407 - liberated from "Numbers and
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- 409 - his own memory of the Past,
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- 411 - only meet again after twelv
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- 413 - and Present are blended by
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- 415 - of his publications as "buo
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- 417 - tion. Pain and physical dea
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- 418 - LOOKATTHEHARLEQUINS! "Look
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- 420 - minor minds, and such vital
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- 422 - Ada also appear in it: some
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- 424 - he himself seems puzzled. I
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- 426 - obvious anyway, is undersco
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- 428 - intimately interwoven with
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- 430 - ture of the author, one may
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- 432 - was) I have gained some exp
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Notes Bibliography
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- 435 - 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Page 447 and 448:
- 437 - 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76
Page 449 and 450:
- 439 - 111 112 113 114 115 116 Nor
Page 451 and 452:
- 441 - N0TES to THEEYE 1 Vladimir
Page 453 and 454:
- 443 - 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Page 455 and 456:
- 445 - N0TES to LOLITA and LAUGHTE
Page 457 and 458:
- 447 - 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Vladim
Page 459 and 460:
- 449 - 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91
Page 461 and 462:
- 451 - 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Page 463 and 464:
- 453 - 60 61 62 63 Vladimir Naboko
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-. 455 - N0TESt0PALEFIRE 1 2 3 4 5
Page 467 and 468:
- 457 - 27 Andrew Field, Nabokov, H
Page 469 and 470:
- 459 - 56 57 58 59 60 Ibid., p. 72
Page 471 and 472:
- 461 - NOTESTOTRANSPARENTTHINGS 1
Page 473 and 474:
- 463 - NOTES to DESPAIR 1 . Vladim
Page 475 and 476:
- 465 - N0TES to BEND SINISTER and
Page 477 and 478:
- 467 - 38 G. M. Hyde, Vladimir Nab
Page 479 and 480:
- 469 - 24 25 26 27 28 29 Vladimir
Page 481 and 482:
- 471 - 71 Op. cit., pp. 147-148. 7
Page 483 and 484:
BIBL10GRAPHY I. Primary Sources 1.
Page 485 and 486:
- 474 - Nabokov, Vladimir, Pale Fir
Page 487 and 488:
- 476 - "Vladimir Nabokov on His Li
Page 489 and 490:
-- 478 - II. Reference Bryer, Jacks
Page 491 and 492:
- 480 - Stuart, Dabney, Nabokov, Th
Page 493 and 494:
- 482 - Dembo, L. S., "Vladimir Nab
Page 495 and 496:
- 484 - Hyman, Stanley Edgar, "The
Page 497 and 498:
- 48ti-. - (Autumn, 1968), pp. 655-
Page 499 and 500:
- 488 - Arbor, 1974), pp. 70-83. Sk
Page 501 and 502:
- 490 - Heidsieck, Arnold, Das Grot
Page 503:
- 492 - Shelston, Alan, Biography,
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