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

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III. Bend Sinister; Invitation to a Beheading Ada
- 321 - BENDSINISTER INVITATIONTOABEHEADING Bend Sinister1 and Invitation to a Beheading2 are often quoted together, for they have much in common, although several years lie between the respective 3 dates of their composition and publication. Both look very much like political novels, dealing as they do with the suffering of individuals in perverse and cruel totalitarian states whose systems are "opposed to the life of the Mind"4 and whose supreme aim is "the destruction of the individual. "5 The protagonist of Bend Sinister is Adam Krug, a professor of philosophy, whose wife has just died. He lives and suffers in a country that has just been taken over by the Ekwilists, a revolutionary party under the leadership of one Paduk, preaching and demanding the absolute equality of all people. Paduk, otherwise "the Toad"6, is a former schoolmate of Krug's and used to be Krug's victim in the schoolyard. Krug bullied him and "every blessed day for about five school years" (BS, 45) sat upon his face. Now their roles are reversed. The philosopher is helpless in his dealings with the dictator. The only person who dares openly oppose him by being faithful to his own private and individual convictions, he sees first his friends disappear one by one, and as that does not induce him to submit, his little son is brutally taken from him, is sent to an Institute for Abnormal Children, where he becomes the victim of a hideous
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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
Page 67 and 68:
- 61 - there must be some "model" a
Page 69 and 70:
- 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
Page 71 and 72:
- 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).
Page 83 and 84:
- 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
Page 117 and 118:
- 111 - He is equally inaccurate in
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- 113 - with Quilty; and, of course
Page 121 and 122:
- 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
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- 159 - gathered from various sourc
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- 161 - a very close one, and it se
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- 163 - tiously follows all the mov
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- 165 - go about it), behaving as i
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- 167 - infinite trouble what he co
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- 169 - What were the things that r
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- 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
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- 177 - that lead to it, he is sing
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- 179 - the time during which he li
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- 181 - France. He is tormented by
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- 183 - on the last page of the nov
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- 185 - what he wants to find, that
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- 187 - would not see him. Somewhat
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- 189 - he falls back on passages f
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- 191 - ticism as one possible way
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- 193 - The passages betray not onl
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- 195 - This "mental jerk" grants k
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- 197 - clear, and the harmony and
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- 199 - initiated the insight. In l
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- 201 - himself, and in it V appear
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- 203 - novels of Sebastian Knight,
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- 205 - All those that knew Sebasti
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- 207 - in his opinion not have for
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- 209 - others as his remoteness an
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- 210 - THEDEFENCE R. H. W. Dillard
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- 212 - his own future, and it beco
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- 214 - Unlike Shade, however, Luzh
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- 216 - has recognized as the basic
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- 218 - The sensitive reader dislik
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- 220 - The individual parts have p
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- 222 - for the overall comic effec
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- 224 - Americans of today. "24 He
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- 226 - learn anything, to wrap it
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- 228 - exhausted. Kinbote uses it
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- 230 - (24-25). He talks about how
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- 232 - "Parents" (1,71), "my bedro
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- 234 - commentary, and they also o
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- 236 - forbidden knowledge of whic
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- 238 - than he thought it was46: B
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- 240 - following the road of its r
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- 242 - actually sees Kinbote, lose
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- 244 - emerges that the man whom h
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- 246 - sions, shows that even the
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- 248 - superficially is about. He
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- 250 - "really" Kinbote who has wr
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- 252 - standing' of the poem do no
Page 261 and 262:
- 254 - Shade mentions a famous fil
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- 256 - is left-handed (180) and he
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- 258 - The sea's a thief, whose li
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- 260 - much a person even on the l
Page 269 and 270:
- 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
Page 277 and 278: - 270- Armande that has brought him
Page 279 and 280: - 272 - a conscious effort. Things
Page 281 and 282: - 274 - intention either to convey
Page 283 and 284: - 276 - past with utmost precision
Page 285 and 286: - 278 - Hugh Person ignores a vague
Page 287 and 288: - 280 - the wall which in his wakin
Page 289 and 290: - 282 - thus opening the view into
Page 291 and 292: - 284 - tain moments he positively
Page 293 and 294: - 286 - We thought that he had in h
Page 295 and 296: - 288 - The thought throws more lig
Page 297 and 298: - 290 - That Nabokov does consider
Page 299 and 300: - 292 - which strangely prefigures
Page 301 and 302: - 294 - become no doubt a new bible
Page 303 and 304: - 296 - It probably is Mr. R. 's ph
Page 305 and 306: - 298 - DESPAIR Despair1, though wr
Page 307 and 308: - 300 - rendering a certain sound t
Page 309 and 310: - 302 - I have grown much too used
Page 311 and 312: - 304 - dimensions of artistic crea
Page 313 and 314: - 306 - when he starts writing his
Page 315 and 316: - 308 - in its capability of photog
Page 317 and 318: - 310- next morning, none would bel
Page 319 and 320: - 312 - To the end, then, he remain
Page 321 and 322: - 314 - tangible double of himself,
Page 323 and 324: - 316 - this attack of his second s
Page 325 and 326: - 318 - ... the ruddy horror of my
Page 327: - 320 - only a limited number of su
Page 331 and 332: - 323 - the Dark Comedies of the Tw
Page 333 and 334: - 325 - and that one has first to p
Page 335 and 336: - 327 - the absurd fate he himself
Page 337 and 338: - 329 - perhaps in some archaic let
Page 339 and 340: - 331 - this fantasy with bits of L
Page 341 and 342: - 333 - in the solution it offers.
Page 343 and 344: - 335 - no more than the strange an
Page 345 and 346: - 337 - clown (IB, 104-105). And th
Page 347 and 348: - 339 - of the original still shine
Page 349 and 350: - 341 - each of them. There is Mart
Page 351 and 352: - 343 - "cleared his throat and sof
Page 353 and 354: - 345 - and then perhaps we shall s
Page 355 and 356: - 347 - our own world , and with it
Page 357 and 358: - 349 - the river we see him fishin
Page 359 and 360: - 351 - inspired by a picture on wh
Page 361 and 362: - 353 - do not conceal them must di
Page 363 and 364: - 355 - also the only one who can i
Page 365 and 366: - 357 - (IB, 26) and only his doubl
Page 367 and 368: - 359 - Cincinnatus no longer what
Page 369 and 370: - 361 - He speculates about time in
Page 371 and 372: - 363 - ADA Ada1 has more than any
Page 373 and 374: - 365 - combine to form the surface
Page 375 and 376: - 367 - ... a string of stock scene
Page 377 and 378: - 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
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- 437 - 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76
Page 449 and 450:
- 439 - 111 112 113 114 115 116 Nor
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- 441 - N0TES to THEEYE 1 Vladimir
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- 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
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- 457 - 27 Andrew Field, Nabokov, H
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- 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
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BIBL10GRAPHY I. Primary Sources 1.
Page 485 and 486:
- 474 - Nabokov, Vladimir, Pale Fir
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- 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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