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

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but it can also be applied to those parts of the
novel which were supposedly written by Kinbote. Just
as all sorts of echoes from Nabokov's life (and from
Speak, memory) can be traced in new imaginary contexts
in his novels, certain elements from the poem (Shade's
autobiography) can be recognized in all parts of the
commentary, and this strongly suggests that the commentary,
the commentator himself and his invention
(Zembla) are Shade's creations.
There are some seemingly insignificant examples,
which yet acquire significance in this connection.
There is the waxwing (I, 1) and there is the Red Ad-_
miral butterfly (11,271, IV, 993-995) which reappear
as, respectively, the Zemblan sampel(silktail),
"the model of one of the three heraldic creatures...
in the armorial bearings of the Zemblan king" (73-74),
and the harvalda (the heraldic one), which can be
recognized in the escutcheon of the Dukes of Payn
(172). There is a puzzling remark about the two Rus-
sian experts hunting for the Crown Jewels: "One has
seldom seen, at least among waxworks, a pair of more
pleasant, presentable chaps" (244). It can now be
accounted for by Shade's device of introducing into
his works things from all spheres of his life. Here
he is seen modelling the two on some wax figures he
has seen somewhere. The table-turning seLances with
an American medium that King Charles has to go through
after his mother's death and the spooky messages that
come from her (109) seem to have their sources in
Shade's experiences at IPH (III, 630ff. ).