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

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natures142, and a cinema built in the neighbourhood
of Franz' dismal lodgings is to open with a show of
a film based on Goldemar's play King, Queen, Knave,
and, as an advertisement, has a display of "three
gigantic transparent-looking playing cards resembling
stained-glass windows which would probably be very
effective when lit up at night" (216).
Franz is a simpleton and a dumb fool, an easy
victim to his aunt's advances, whose values, in turn,
are derived from the world of the cinema, and who is
so wholly rooted in convention that even for a woman
to have a lover appears to her to be a conventional
necessity. As in their affair, Franz is equally helplessly
her victim when she involves him in her murder-
ous
plans.
The only one to show some signs of genuine life
is the hen-pecked husband, Kurt Dreyer, who is not
only a successful businessman, but also knows how to
enjoy life; who has a keen sense of humour, is amused
by his conventional home and has something of an
artist about him; in fact, in his youth he wanted to
be one (223). He reads poems on the train journey,
which Martha finds objectionable (9-10), and winces
at some abominable performance at a variety show
which entrances Franz and Martha (116-117). One sign,
perhaps, that he has the author's sympathy is the
fact that he can identify "'a Red Admirable butterfly',
the recurring lepidopteron that is almost Nabokov's
heraldic beast. " 143
But although alive in the sense just described, he