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

- 244
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emerges that the man whom he casts as Gradus is
really one Jack Grey who has escaped from the Institute
for the Criminal Insane. He wants to revenge
himself on the judge who sent him there, mistakes
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Shade for that judge and kills him. Kinbote talks
of "crass banalities" (85), and "evil piffle" (294),
when referring to this representation of the incidents
that lead to Shade's death, but his own notes contain
enough material to make it appear the most likely,
in fact, the true, version of what happens. In this
series of incidents, too, a pattern can be recognized:
The judge (Goldsworth) is Shade's neighbour; he is away
(in England); Kinbote has rented his house; Kinbote
has sought Shade's friendship. On this particular
day, Sybil happens to have gone out, Kinbote happens
to have seen her go out, and has therefore invited
Shade. They arrive at his house at precisely the same
moment at which Grey also arrives with his gun. The
pattern is complete down to the last detail: Grey
does not fire at Kinbote, as Kinbote will have it,
but aims deliberately at Shade: He has mistaken Shade
for the judge, for Shade and the judge resemble each
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other.
Kinbote's version may look very different from
the official one, with the melodramatic King of Zembla
replacing the honourable judge, and the Zemblan Ex-
tremist Gradus stepping into prosaic Grey's place;
with,
also
,
Gradus' slow and circuitous approach
from abroad instead of Grey's direct and rather ordi-
nary approach to Kinbote's house. Yet, the two ver-