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

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Sebastian Knight, for example, and Pale Fire, where
the artist was seen to be capable of insights that the
ordinary man does not have, the "closed circle of
reliable land" is formed by art, and the novel the
reader is holding in his hands is another demonstration
and proof of this. It lays open the failings of
the ordinary human mind but suggests ways of overcoming
them. It poses questions and pursues them to
a point where they seem unanswerable, but it has the
answer ready and offers solutions where the ordinary
mind might be overcome by doubts. The author creates
a moment of the utmost uncertainty, but holds out a
helping hand and offers insights that restore certainty.
After almost pushing the reader over the brink
of an abyss, he helps him regain the circle of reli-
able
land.
It might be objected to all this that the whole is
after all something invented, a novel, in which the
author figures prominently as an omniscient person.
The so-called insights might be considered as no more
than the evidence of his omniscience, the result of
a convention, and thus parts of his invention.
The author's omniscience is of course apparent
from the first. He knows all about Hugh, about his
past, his thoughts, memories and dreams. He knows
where Hugh's memories are erroneous and ie corrects
them. He can explain and account for incidents that
have only a very loose connection, or none at all,
with Person's story. He comments on irrelevant matters
just to show that he knows everything (13,25). At cer-