Nabokov, ou le vrai et l'invraisemblable
by Jeff Edmunds
page six of twelve

Buhks, Nora. “Sur la structure du roman de Vl. Nabokov Roi, dame, valet,” Revue des études slaves, LIX/4, 1987, pp. 799-810. [English translation available in Zembla.]

This is, to my mind, one of the more interesting articles so far written on Korol’, dama, valet, yet paradoxically it is seldom cited. Buhks, a frequent writer (in both Russian and French) on Nabokov, sets out to show that the author’s second novel is “ostensiblement experimental” [ostensibly experimental] and that its structure is modelled on the waltz. Buhks notes the very curious prevalence of triads in the novel (beginning with the tripartite title) and ties this theme to the waltz’s 3/4 time. Music and dance are shown to be recurring motifs, as are circular motion and the exchange of partners. Extasis is defined as the waltz’s organizing principle, and Buhks shows how Nabokov uses it by identifying three of its narrative functions: “extasis comme situation autonome” [extasis as autonomous situation], “la réalisation d’un changement qualitatif” [realization of a qualitative change], and “le passage d’un point de vue à un autre” [the shift from one point of view to another]. Examples are given of each. Bukhs relates the novel’s narrative structures to Bely’s Four Symphonies, which are constructed “selon le principe du contrepoint musical” [according to the principle of musical counterpoint] and the influence of Bely’s Peterburg (an edition of which was published by the same firm as KDV) is also cited. The novel is seen as a parody of the Symbolists’ harmony of the spheres: “La valse, forme imitant un tournoiement chaotique se transforme chez Nabokov en harmonie de l’automatisme et de la répétition, en contraste parodique avec l’harmonie des sphères supérieures proclamées par les symbolistes … tout au long du roman de Nabokov à «l’orchestre du monde» répond toujours plus distinctement le «vacarme du haut-parleur de la radio»…” [The waltz, a form imitating a chaotic spinning, is transformed in Nabokov into a harmony of automatism and repetition, in parodic contrast with the harmony of higher spheres proclaimed by the Symbolists … throughout Nabokov’s novel, the “din of the radio loudspeaker” responds ever more distinctly to the “orchestra of the world”].

Erman, Michel. “Le réel et l’illusoire dans La Méprise de Vladimir Nabokov.” In Imaginaires du simulacre: seminaires de l’année 1986-1987 (Dijon: Université de Bourgogne, Faculté de lettres et philosophie, 1987), pp. 161-175.

The premise of this article, that “Pour Nabokov, le réel et l’illusoire sont inextricable” [For Nabokov, the real and the illusory are inextricable] could be interesting if given detailed treatement. But Erman’s use of La Méprise to make his point is rather unspectacular. The novel’s narrator is likened to Nabokov, “dont le nom est inscrit en anagramme, à une lettre près, dans Hermann Carlovitch” [whose name is inscribed anagramatically, but for one letter, in Hermann Carlovitch]—a far-fetched observation. Erman’s statements tend to be broad (“Le personnage d’Hermann a donc les qualités d’un écrivain puisqu’il voit la fiction dans le réel” [ The character Hermann thus has the qualities of a writer since he sees fiction in the real]) and his asides offhand and vague (“—il y a quelque chose de Joyce dans cette attitude—” [there is something of Joyce in this attitude]). In at least one instance Erman seems to give too great a credence to Hermann, accepting his statement that his wife loves him despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Near the end of the discussion, we are told that the novel defies classification, that psychoanalysis “nous offre une clef parmi d’autres” [offers us one key among others] and that “La réaction d’Hermann face à Felix rappelle le stade du miroir lacanien” [Hermann’s reaction before Felix recalls Lacan’s mirror phase.]. Erman’s conclusion that “S’il y avait une leçon à tirer du roman, ce pourrait être la suivante : celui qui se regarde perd son idenitité” [If there is a lesson to be drawn from the novel, it could be the following: he who looks at himself loses his identity] is neither convincing nor terribly enlightening.

Sollers, Philippe. “Vladimir Nabokov, l’enchanteur,” Le Monde, 18 mars 1988.

In this newspaper article well-known French novelist Philippe Sollers celebrates Nabokov’s genius, noting his favorite themes: memory, childhood, time. Sollers calls Autres rivages (Speak, Memory) “un des plus beaux livres de souvenirs jamais écrits” [one of the finest books of memories ever written] and considers La vraie vie de Sebastian Knight “un de ses chefs-d’œuvre” [one of his masterpieces]—an assessment unusual in French (or other) Nabokov criticism.

The caption of the portrait accompanying the article reads “Vladimir Nabokov : hautement insaisissable” [Vladimir Nabokov: loftily elusive]. Sollers writes: “Ouvrir un livre de Nabokov, c’est être immédiatement assailli par des plaques mobiles de descriptions simultanées, des superpositions, des enveloppements rapides. La phrase va, s’interrompt, reprend, saute, la musique intelligente est partout…” [To open a book by Nabokov is to be immediately assailed by mobile sheets of simultaneous descriptions, superimpositions, rapid envelopments. The sentence goes, is interrupted, sets off again, jumps, intelligent music is everywhere…].

Barbedette, Gilles. “Nabokov et le roman paradoxal.” L’Infini (Paris), 21, printemps 1988, pp. 46-53.

The issue of L’Infini in which this article appears also includes a selection of the Nabokov-Wilson correspondence in French translation, a French version of Simon Karlinsky’s excellent introduction to the English edition of the Letters, and another brief contribution from Barbedette entitled “La corrida Nabokov/Wilson.”7

Barbedette defines le roman paradoxal as “l’ennemi le plus arrogant et le plus prestigieux du roman de vérité” [the most arrogant and most prestigious enemy of the novel of truth] and emphasizes its (and Nabokov’s) “haine des idées reçues” [hatred of received ideas]. “Nabokov,” claims Barbedette, “est le grand Maître de l’Irréalisme dans la littérature du XXe siècle” [Nabokov is the Master of Unrealism in twentieth-century literature], and it is by means of his “«recherché», imaginé, baroque” [“exquisite,” fanciful, Baroque] style that Nabokov “se débarrasse du fardeau du réel” [rids himself of the burden of the real]. “Ce que nous croyons être réel ne doit jamais l’être pour l’artiste … Nabokov est l’un des seuls génies modernes à avoir autant démoralisé son public en lui disant le côté désespérément artisanal et aléatoire de l’art littéraire et en dénonçant comme la plus dangereuse idéalisation celle qui fait voir dans la littérature le support inertre de la matière, la béquille d’un monde quasi-minéral, le compte rendu des choses objectives” [What we believe to be real must never be so for the artist … Nabokov is one of the only modern geniuses to have so demoralized his public in telling it of the desperately artistic and chancy side of the literary art and in denouncing as the most dangerous idealization that which causes literature to be seen as the inert support of matter, the crutch of a quasi-mineral world, the written report of objective things]. It seems that ultimately reality is compelled to mimic the art it once dimissed as “un mirage inutile” [a pointless mirage] and this is literature’s revenge: “de faire preuve d’imagination dans un monde qui a renoncé à l’idée de sa propre fiction” [to give proof of imagination in a world that has renounced the idea of its own fictitiousness].

Bucher, Gérard. “Au sujet de Nabokov: Feu pale, une poétique de l’immortalité,” Po&sie, 45, 1988, pp. 65-89.

Review forthcoming.

7. In which he snipes, be it noted in passing, at “l’homme de parti, l’intellectuel professionnel, voire l’universitaire qui aujourd’hui accablent la vie littéraire plus qu’ils ne l’enrichissent (spécialement aux Etats-Unis)” [the party man, the professional intellectual, or even the academic who today crush literary life more than they enrich it (especially in the United States)].