Ellen Pifer NABOKOV and the Novel HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England Copyright © 1980 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Second printing, 1981 Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Pifer, Ellen. Nabokov and the novel. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977— Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PG3476.N3Z8 813'. 54 80-16197 ISBN 0-674-59840-7 Preface No one disputes Vladimir Nabokov's brilliance as a stylist. His language may startle, tease, disturb; but, most readers agree, it rarely disappoints. Wit, craft, elegance, originality—these words are most often heard when a Nabokov novel is being discussed. Yet a steady barrage of negative criticism has, for half a century, accompanied the frequent praise. Many of the same readers who laud Nabokov's genius for language tend to regard his verbal pyrotechnics as evidence of the aesthete's shallow psychology. The primary responsibility of the novelist is, after all, to depict human beings and their struggles in the world. But Nabokov, we often hear it said, preferred pat- terns to people and the challenges of art to the intractable problems of life. My intention in this book is to demonstrate that even the most intricate of Nabokov's artifices reflect the author's abiding interest in human beings, not only as artists and dreamers but as ethical beings sub- Preface ject to moral law and sanction. Because Nabokov's characters are frequently charged with being mere puppets of their master, my point of departure is, as the title of the first chapter indicates, "the question of character." What claim to reality have characters who exist in a world of declared artifice? The answer to that question presupposes the answer to another: What, in Nabokov's view, makes up human reality? My analysis of a representative body of his fiction is meant to provide some answers to these questions, along with conclusive evidence that Nabokov does, in fact, seek to reflect "reality" in his novels. The con- clusions drawn in chapters 2 through 5 culminate in the formulation of still another question—the ques- tion of Nabokov's contribution to the tradition of the novel. In chapter 6, therefore, I invite the reader to take a speculative pause, posing in an informal rather than theoretical manner "the question of realism." In the final two chapters, I reexamine Nabokov's notori- ous quest for "aesthetic bliss" in the light of his less celebrated, but no less ardent, commitment to moral truth. Rather than provide a comprehensive survey of all of Nabokov's fiction, I deliberately focus attention on those novels which are the most highly wrought and aesthetically self-conscious. If the reader is convinced by my discussion of the most "artificial" and de- tached fictions, I shall have made my case for Nabo- kov's achievement as a novelist. In selecting, from the impressive variety of Nabokov's complete works, those novels which come under special consideration here, I have also kept in mind the number, subject, and quality of previous critical studies. Lolita and Preface Pale Fire, for example, have already been the focus of much excellent and wide-ranging criticism. For this reason, I have chosen to examine these two estab- lished masterpieces of the Nabokov canon in relation to a less familiar work, the Russian novel Despair. Although Lolita and Pale Fire may appear to receive relatively brief attention, sandwiched as they are within the confines of a single chapter, I actually refer to them throughout the book. The celebrated human- ity of these two novels is no artistic fluke, but the re- sult of themes everywhere present in Nabokov's fic- tion. King, Queen, Knave, the subject of an early chapter, may be unfamiliar to some readers. The fact that this novel is usually dismissed as intricate but lifeless, because devoid of interesting lifelike charac- ters, raised in my mind certain fundamental questions about the nature of Nabokov's fiction. While reading King, Queen, Knave, I began to examine the way in which Nabokov's detachment from his characters and their "invented habitus" contributes dramatically to a moral perception of reality. My analysis of the novels originally written in Rus- sian is based on Nabokov's most recent English ver- sions. When reference to the original Russian text appears necessary, I supply the information in a note. This method best serves the majority of my readers, who, I assume, have read Nabokov in English. It also serves my argument, because in almost every case the revised English versions of earlier Russian works in- corporate more elaborate patterns of artifice, creat- ing a greater awareness of the author's manipulation of the fiction. It is my contention that Nabokov's increasingly sophisticated use of artifice is not devel- Preface oped at the expense of the novelist's commitment to creating character, as many critics tend to assume. I am grateful to the University of Delaware for a General University Research Grant that enabled me to complete this book. Typing costs and other related expenses were also met by a University grant-in-aid, awarded by the College of Arts and Science. Modern Fiction Studies and Slavic and East European Journal kindly granted me permission to reprint chapters 7 and 8, which originally appeared, in slightly different form, in their pages. I wish to express my special thanks to Robert Alter, whose interest in this project was a continuing source of encouragement during its development. Simon Karlinsky, Robert Hughes, Eric Johannesson, and the late F. W. Dupee—all astute readers of Nabokov—encouraged me, at various times, in my study. Finally, I want to thank my hus- band, Drury Pifer, for his enthusiasm and support during this undertaking. Contents i The Question of Character 1 II Consciousness, Real Life, and Fairytale Freedom: King, Queen, Knave 14 III Breaking the Law of Averages: Invitation to a Beheading 49 IV Putting Two and One Together: Bend Sinister 68 Contents V Singularity and the Double's Pale Ghost: From Despair to Pale Fire 97 VI The Question of Realism 119 VII Heaven, Hell, and the Realm of Art: Ada's Dark Paradise 132 VIII On the Dark Side of Aesthetic Bliss: Nabokov's Humanism 158 Notes 173 Index 195 ALL NOVELISTS are fundamentally seekers and describers of the real, but the realism of each novelist will depend on his view of the ultimate reaches of reality. FLANNERY O'CONNOR