Table Of ContentReQding
NABOKOV
READING
NABOKOV
Douglas Fowler
Cornell
ITHACA
University
AND
PresS
LONDON
READING NABOKOV
Copyright © 1974 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book,
or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information address
Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 1974 by Cornell University Press.
Published in the United Kingdom by Cornell University Press Ltd.,
2-4 Brook Street, London WIY lAA.
International Standard Book Number 0-8014-0828-8
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-20798
Printed in the United States of America by York Composition Co., Inc.
For Baxter Hathaway
MY TEACHER,
FRIEND, AND
CONSCIENCE
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Vladimir N abokov and his publishers for per
mission to quote from the following works:
Ada, copyright © 1969 by McGraw-Hill International Inc.; Bend
Sinister, copyright © 1947 by Vladimir Nabokov; "The Room"
and "The Ballad of Longwood Glen," from Poems and Problems,
copyright © 1970 by McGraw-Hill International, Inc. Quota
tions by permission of McGraw-Hill International, Inc.
Pnin, copyright © 1953, 1955, 1957 by Vladimir Nabokov;
quotations by permission of Vladimir Nabokov and Doubleday &
Co., Inc. Material from chapter 3 of Pnin, copyright © 1954,
1955, 1957 by Vladimir Nabokov, was originally published in
The New Yorker and is reprinted by permission of Doubleday &
Co., Inc. Quotations from "Spring in Fialta" by Vladimir
Nabokov, copyright © 1947 by the Hearst Corporation, from the
book N abokov's Dozen; by permission of Doubleday & Co., Inc.
Lolita, copyright © 1955 by Vladimir Nabokov; Pale Fire, copy
right © 1962, and The Gift, copyright © 1963, by G. P. Putnam's
Sons; quotations by permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons. "Tri
angle within Circle," reprinted in The Gift, was originally pub
lished in The New Yorker, March 23, 1963.
Lines from T. S. Eliot's "Marina" are reprinted from Collected
I
8 Reading N abokov
Poems, 1909-1962 by T. S. Eliot, by permission of Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
Lines from John Crowe Ransom's "Bells for John Whiteside's
Daughter" are reprinted from Selected Poems by John Crowe
Ransom, third edition, revised and enlarged, copyright © 1962,
1963, 1969 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., by permission of Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.
DOUGLAS FOWLER
Tallahassee, Florida
Contents
Introduction: Nabokov's Constants 13
1. The Nabokov Paradigm: Bend Sinister 21
2. Nabokov's Short Fiction 62
"Cloud, Castle, Lake" 62
"Spring in Fialta" 67
"Triangle within Circle" 80
3. Pale Fire 91
4. Pnin 122
5. Lolita 147
6. Ada 176
7. Epilogue: "The Ballad of Longwood Glen" 202
Notes 207
215'
Bibliography
219
Index
READING NABOKOV
Introduction:
Nabokov's Constants
This book offers a reading of five of Vladimir Nabokov's novels
and three of his short stories, and it refers to a good deal more of
his fiction, to his criticism, and to his autobiography. I hope to
demonstrate that the fiction is organized about a set of thematic,
moral, and narrative constants, and that if we read it with these
constants in mind, we will understand it better and enjoy it more.
I begin by taking a close look at Bend Sinister} which I believe
can serve as a paradigm of Nabokov's methods and intentions.
Then, applying the paradigm to each story, I interpret some of
the short fiction, hoping to enlarge and refine our reading in a
cumulative manner. I follow with a chapter each on Pale Fire}
Pnin} Lolita} Ada} and, finally, Nabokov's Poem "The Ballad of
Longwood Glen."
Although this method should give us Nabokov's fiction in
stereoscopic depth and show us those constants at work in each
piece, it is dangerous insofar as it tends to produce what might
be called "district attorney" criticism: evidence is put forth solely
to prove a point, and anything that cannot be used to advance
that point is obscured or ignored. A statement from Nabokov's
novel The Gift is apropos. Speaking of poetry that convinces with
its precision and thus earns the reader's trust, N abokov says that
this conviction is generated "not because everything is delineated
