''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 45 - natures142, and a cinema built in the neighbourhood of Franz' dismal lodgings is to open with a show of a film based on Goldemar's play King, Queen, Knave, and, as an advertisement, has a display of "three gigantic transparent-looking playing cards resembling stained-glass windows which would probably be very effective when lit up at night" (216). Franz is a simpleton and a dumb fool, an easy victim to his aunt's advances, whose values, in turn, are derived from the world of the cinema, and who is so wholly rooted in convention that even for a woman to have a lover appears to her to be a conventional necessity. As in their affair, Franz is equally helplessly her victim when she involves him in her murder- ous plans. The only one to show some signs of genuine life is the hen-pecked husband, Kurt Dreyer, who is not only a successful businessman, but also knows how to enjoy life; who has a keen sense of humour, is amused by his conventional home and has something of an artist about him; in fact, in his youth he wanted to be one (223). He reads poems on the train journey, which Martha finds objectionable (9-10), and winces at some abominable performance at a variety show which entrances Franz and Martha (116-117). One sign, perhaps, that he has the author's sympathy is the fact that he can identify "'a Red Admirable butterfly', the recurring lepidopteron that is almost Nabokov's heraldic beast. " 143 But although alive in the sense just described, he
- 46 - is blind where his wife and Franz are concerned, and this gives rise to a number of ironic situations, described in detail by Jürgen Bodenstein. 144 To give only a few examples out of the many: Dreyer is pleased to find, for example, that his wife is smiling "fairly often of late", and he mistakenly puts this down to the fact that she is happy with him. Actually Martha smiles because she intends to seduce young Franz, and "was in the pleasant position of a person who has been promised a mysterious treat in the near future"(62). Leaving for a skiing trip, Dreyer encourages his wife to "Have a good time over the holidays" and "Tell Franz to take you to the theatre" (148), without realizing that there is no need for such encouragement at all. He is the victim of false appearances on many other occasions, as for example, when he returns from his trip and experiences "perfect happiness" because "there was a magnificent smile on Martha's face" (160). However, it is not a smile of welcome; she smiles because "wise fate... had so simply and honestly averted a crude, ridiculous, dreadfully overworked disaster" (160), namely that of Dreyer surprising her and Franz together in his own bedroom. All these and many other examples145 joyfully exploit a stock comedy-situation and its consequences, and may in this novel not have any profound implications. However, they do anticipate, even though in a comic guise, the implications of later novels, such as The Eye, Pnin, Lolita, and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, all of which centre round the question whether
- Page 1 and 2: ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest fo
- Page 3 and 4: Abstract Nabokov once said that "re
- Page 5 and 6: Introduction
- Page 7 and 8: -2- granting that the Bolshevist an
- Page 9 and 10: -4- consent, was motivated by the a
- Page 11 and 12: -6- on the aspects of life that int
- Page 13 and 14: -8- importance but its art, only it
- Page 15 and 16: - 10 - of. the novels, consist in t
- Page 17 and 18: - 12 - life with its hazards and in
- Page 19 and 20: - 14 - lives of individual persons,
- Page 21 and 22: - 16 - is convinced to really know
- Page 23 and 24: - 18 - hopeless, but Nabokov does n
- Page 25 and 26: - 20 - for the artist, is expressed
- Page 27 and 28: - 22 - a new, wholly artistic reali
- Page 29 and 30: - 24 - way, and this knowledge and
- Page 31 and 32: - 26 - internal evidence of Invitat
- Page 33 and 34: - 28 - Admittedly not all of Naboko
- Page 35 and 36: - 30 - "tr. ue reality" in that it
- Page 37 and 38: - 32 - the manner in which the subj
- Page 39 and 40: - 34 - The case is quite similar in
- Page 41 and 42: - 36 - lines of play 11120 will in
- Page 43 and 44: - 38 - him knowledge surpassing tha
- Page 45 and 46: - 40 - the present. This act of rec
- Page 47 and 48: - 42 - design in the life of Martin
- Page 49: - 44 - Martin's mother of her son's
- Page 53 and 54: - 48 - serious and profound experie
- Page 55 and 56: I. The Eye Pnin Lolita; Laughter*in
- Page 57 and 58: - 51 - novel. They illustrate how p
- Page 59 and 60: - 53 - tearing the banknote into li
- Page 61 and 62: - 55 - have before: after the suici
- Page 63 and 64: - 57 - imagination of Gretchen best
- Page 65 and 66: - 59 - deed been through an experie
- Page 67 and 68: - 61 - there must be some "model" a
- Page 69 and 70: - 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
- Page 71 and 72: - 65 - For the sake of convenience
- Page 73 and 74: - 67 - Pnin's appearance is comic,
- Page 75 and 76: - 69 - all-the time. He suffers an
- Page 77 and 78: - 71 - existence" (13). In his pres
- Page 79 and 80: - 73 - is going to give, on his per
- Page 81 and 82: - 75 - exist in such big sea" (60).
- Page 83 and 84: - 77 - directly from Pnin's peculia
- Page 85 and 86: - 79 - them at least 10ok like his
- Page 87 and 88: - 81 - indeed only the very thinnes
- Page 89 and 90: - 83 - but the group of academics w
- Page 91 and 92: - 85 - "schools and trends", and is
- Page 93 and 94: - 87 - which induces the reader to
- Page 95 and 96: - 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
- Page 97 and 98: - 91 - More depth and reality are a
- Page 99 and 100: - 93 - cp. 180). The narrator also
- 46 -<br />
is blind where his wife and Franz are concerned, and<br />
this gives rise to a number of ironic situations,<br />
described in detail by Jürgen Bodenstein.<br />
144<br />
To give<br />
only a few examples out of the many: Dreyer is pleased<br />
to find, <strong>for</strong> example, that his wife is smiling "fairly<br />
often of late", and he mistakenly puts this down to<br />
the fact that she is happy with him. Actually Martha<br />
smiles because she intends to seduce young Franz, and<br />
"was in the pleasant position of a person who has<br />
been promised a mysterious treat in the near future"(62).<br />
Leaving <strong>for</strong> a skiing trip, Dreyer encourages his wife<br />
to "Have a good time over the holidays" and "Tell Franz<br />
to take you to the theatre" (148), without realizing<br />
that there is no need <strong>for</strong> such encouragement at all.<br />
He is the victim of false appearances on many other<br />
occasions, as <strong>for</strong> example, when he returns from his<br />
trip and experiences "perfect happiness" because<br />
"there was a magnificent smile on Martha's face" (160).<br />
However, it is not a smile of welcome; she smiles<br />
because "wise fate... had so simply and honestly<br />
averted a crude, ridiculous, dreadfully overworked<br />
disaster" (160), namely that of Dreyer surprising<br />
her and Franz together in his own bedroom.<br />
All these and many other examples145 joyfully<br />
exploit a stock comedy-situation and its consequences,<br />
and may in this novel not have any profound implications.<br />
However, they do anticipate, even though in a comic<br />
guise, the implications of later novels, such as<br />
The Eye, Pnin, Lolita, and The Real Life of Sebastian<br />
Knight, all of which centre round the question whether
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