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

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resemblance, and although some of Vadim's novels
seem to be simply reflections of Nabokov's, others
are "serious distortions and even composites. "4
Richard Patteson has given a detailed analysis of the
similarities and differences of which only a few shall
be mentioned here to illustrate the point.
Tamara seems to resemble Mary so closely as to be
mistaken for it by an old bookseller, who also confuses
Camera Lucida with Camera Obscura (Laughter in
the Dark), but the remarks about Pawn Takes Queen indicate
that in this novel a fusion has occurred between
King, Queen, Knave and The Defence (58). The Red Tophat
takes its title from a phrase in Invitation to a
Beheading
5
and corresponds to that novel, and the cor-
respondences seem to be equally clear between Esmeralda
and Her Parandrus and Bend Sinister and their respective
heroes Gurko and Krug. Dr. Olga Repnin echoes
Pnin in its very title, and A Kingdom by the Sea recalls
the title that Nabokov had originally planned
to give to Lolita. But when somebody accuses Vadim
of writing a book the contents of which is a vague
version of Lolita, Vadim is "aware of the uncontrollable
cloud of black fury growing within my brain"
(218) before he puts this person right: "You are mis-
taken. You are a somber imbecile. The novel I wrote,
the novel I'm holding now, is A Kingdom by the Sea,
you are talking of some other book altogether" (218),
thus energetically and angrily denying any connection
between the two books. Even so, the basic situation
does resemble that of Lolita, but some elements from