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

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congratulation. "33 It also induces them to take an
arrogant view of things outside their own interests,
and encourages in them an attitude of condescension
towards others. Van is called a "young fop" (304) and
and "angry young demon" (301), which epithets neatly
describe both his boundless self-confidence and
"princely sense that everything is open to him"
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and his complete lack of self-restraint and his cruelty,
to which even Ada is provoked to object on some
occasions (403,406,530).
Ada's and Van's only preoccupations outside their
relationship being sensuous and aesthetic pleasures,
their relations with other persons are devoid of
human sentiments. They use others, damaging and sometimes
destroying them. Only those survive who, like
Cordula and Van's countless women, can accept and
follow the rules on which their conduct is based.
Those who seek real involvement and sentiment in their
relations with Van and Ada are hurt, the saddest example
being of course Lucette, whom their behaviour
drives to suicide.
Ada and Van are thus shown divested of almost all
"normal" human characteristics. They are shown exclusively
in terms of their genius, of what critics
have called their unpleasantness and cruelty, and of
their love for each other, and it is in this sense
that they are Fowler's "stylized fantasy-figures".
It will appear later that they are stylized also insofar
as they are from the first-conceived as ideal
lovers, and in view of this their incest will appear