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

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executions and other authorial intrusions. "7 Fowler
adds to this list of complaints "the unpleasantness
of Van and Ada"8 whom he describes as "stylized
fantasy-figures. "9 All this, he concludes, makes
both the situations and the characters of the novel
unconvincing10 and "makes it impossible for the
reader to have any real sense of participation in
[the] story. -, 11 What remains is "a textbook for a
course in Nabokov", "naked Nabokoviana"12, demanding
"the Nabokov, "specialist: a reader with sympathy, access
to a good library, and a great deal of time. " 13
All of these things are true only to a certain
degree and should not lead to the harsh judgement
of Fowler, who calls Ada "a very imperfect book. "" 14
The elements to which he objects constitute only the
surface appearance of the novel, and will be seen to
have very specific functions, just as the unrealistic
mode of narration of which Fowler complains. Fowler's
description of Ada as "Nabokoviana" cannot be accept-
ed unless the word is given a more comprehensive
meaning than Fowler assigns to it. As L. L. Lee has
pointed out, the novel contains indeed Nabökov's
signature: "Ada or Ardor: a Family Chronicle, a novel
that contains another title within itself, Van's Book,
which is Nabokov in anagram... "15 (Nabokov has been
seen to make his presence clear in a similar way in
4.
the Preface to Lolita). Quite clearly, then, Nabokov's
is the ultimate voice behind the book, and its con-
cerns are not just Van's but Nabokov's own. However,
they are not so much the rather obvious elements that