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

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was, again, creating the place, constructing it of
"certain refuse particles of my past" (80), very obviously
and awkwardly using the method that Shade has
been seen to use so subtly. And another point which
seems to settle the matter is of course Orlovius' remark
that Hermann used to write letters to himself
(201).
However, it is only possible to look into the causes
of the confusion, not, to clear it up, for Hermann is
perhaps the most unreliable in the gallery of Nabokov's
unreliable narrators and makes it impossible for the
reader to decide how much of Hermann's story is based
on fact and how much of it is pure invention. While
writing about him one constantly finds oneself reduced
to using arguments that stand on extremely shaky ground,
for one never knows which part of his story can be relied
upon and used as a valid argument and which part
it would be better to avoid.
Hermann is quite outspoken about two of his qualities
that make him so doubtful a narrator: his tendency
to tell lies and his habit of composing fiction.
Even as achild, he says, "I lied as a nightingale
sings" (55), and to his wife he tells "such a heap of
lies" (36) that he finds it impossible to remember
them all. There are a good many examples of this "essential
trait" of his throughout the book. However,
he regards it not so much as a weakness of character,
but as an expression of an artist's gift to be proud
of. He has always felt that there is in him "a poet,
an author" (113), and for him his lies take on the