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

-4-
consent, was motivated by the author's "critical and
14
irreverent approach" to his subject. The editorial
board had all been members of the Russian Social Revolutionary
Party before the Revolution, and felt that
the author was taking too much liberty with the person
of Chernyshevskii, "one of the official saints of the
Russian 19th century progressive movement"15, and in-
deed "with the great social-reforming tradition of
the Russian nineteenth century" itself.
16
There
is
fine Nabokovian irony in the fact that the hero of the
novel, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who writes the biography,
has great difficulty in finding a publisher
for his life of Chernyshevskii, and that the reasons
are similar to those which prevented the publication
17
of Nabokov's book.
Critics' opinions on this biography differ. As
Field points out, Fyodor uses f acts18, and for long
stretches his account of Chernyshevskii's life does
seem straightforward enough, following the main stations
of his life, and stressing those events and in-
cidents that are stressed in ordinary, matter-of-fact
biographies of Chernyshevskii.
19
But then, of course,
he also uses facts "which are frequently bypassed"20;
he uses intimate material from intimate sources, such
as journals, and dwells on points that tact would in-
duce others to skip. He highlights some of Cherny-
shevskii's weaknesses and takes liberties with certain
episodes, which, comic in themselves, become more
comic when stylized and exaggerated. Karlinsky calls
the treatment of Chernyshevskii "satirical and at