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

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instance, are to a large extent based on the experience
of his emigre existence in Berlin, and parts of Mary
are based on some youthful romance. Some of the main
events in the life of Sebastian Knight resemble events
in Nabokov's own life, and the same has been found to
be true of Vadim. Persons Nabokov knew reappear in
his fiction. Thus one can see his own Mademoiselle,
described in Speak, Memory, as the model for V's and
Sebastian's old Swiss Mademoiselle in The Real Life
of Sebastian Knight. In connection with Pale Fire it
was said that thousands of daily trivia have found
their way into Nabokov's novels.
One may try and trace everything. One may trace the
obvious parallels between the events in Nabokov's
life and those events in the lives of his characters
that resemble them. One may include into one's knowledge
of the author such views as he gave to his "more
responsible" characters. But all of this will not help
one to know the author. The chapters on The Real
Life of Sebastian Knight'and Pale Fire have shown
that such autobiographical elements as are there, are
taken out of their original contexts, combined with
other elements, even with invented ones, and introduced
into the novels for purely artistic purposes.
Look at the Harlequins! is another example to illus-
trate the point.
j6
If one does not pay attention to this, and if one
does not or cannot make the proper distinction between
real and invented, but insists on putting all the
elements together and reconstruct from them the pic-