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

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I have grown much too used to an outside
view of myself, to being both painter
and model, so no wonder my style is denied
the blessed grace of spontaneity (29).
"I have grown... used to... being both painter and model"
says in fact that Hermann has got used to being two
persons at once, so to speak, somewhat like Smurov in
The Eye, one of his selves observing what the other is
doing. While explaining that under this constant super-
vision his spontaneity is lost, his remark also estab-
lishes a link to the story he is telling about himself
and takes one right to its central concern.
The central concern is Hermann's obsession with the
idea that he has a double. Just how much of the story
that revolves round this double is based on fact never
becomes clear. There are a great many questions none
of which can be satisfactorily answered at the end.
Is there such a person as Felix? If Hermann meets him,
does he really write to him? Does he really see him
again? Does he really murder him? Or is it their first
meeting that starts off Hermann's imagination and makes
him invent the rest? There are some indications that
this might be the case. There is one point at which
Hermann is seen practically creating Felix:
it
... was not at once that I glanced at
his face; I started working from his feet
upward, as one sees on the screen when
the cameraman is trying to be tantalizing.
First came big, dusty shoes, thick socks
sloppy about the ankles, then shiny blue
trousers-and a hand holding a crust of
dry bread. Then a blue coat over a dark-
grey sweater. Still higher the soft collar
that I knew-There I stopped. Should
I leave him headless or go on building
him? (83-84)
The description he gives of Tarnitz reads as if he