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

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Looking Glass logic and arithmetic leave even V
"flabbergasted" (124), finds out the information
that V so urgently desires, but, unsubtle and awkward
in his dealings with the Blauberg hotel manager
(whose manners so resemble those of Carroll's caterpillar)
did not obtain (114-115). Without much ado,
the astonishing Silbermann provides a list of the
names of four women among whom may be the one V is
trying to find.
Thus the tone is set, not to change until the end
of V's quest. Logic, the very essence of detective
stories, clearly has no part in it. V's proceedings
are completely mechanical. He simply seeks out the
four women in an order that seems to him the most
convenient, and what he learns on the way is not the
result of deduction but is offered to him by mere
chance and coincidence, such as the unsought for name
and address of Sebastian's first sweetheart. Another
coincidence: after collecting from her "one of the
most precious pages of Sebastian's life" (128):
memories of some romantic summer days, he finds that
the taxi driver taking him to the station is her
brother, Sebastians former school mate. However, he
is a disappointing witness, reluctant, even unwilling,
to recall the past. The only statement V can coax
from him is that Sebastian "was not very popular at
school" (131).
Even the last stroke, the discovery of the woman
he has been hunting for, is not achieved through logic
or combination on V's part. In fact, in all the events