Book Review on Brian Boyd's Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery.
I really enjoy the way this review summarizes Boyd's opinion that Pale Fire is a ghost story. Zalewski's review is extremely interesting for anyone interested in Nabokov's obsession with the afterlife.
Zalewski writes, "Vera Nabokov went so far as to declare the afterlife to be her husband's 'main theme.'"
Boyd makes the interesting argument that Hazel becomes the Vanessa Atalanta butterfly after her death. He thinks that her pada ata message is the clue to the reader that this is the case. Boyd also thinks that this is the reason for the explicit focus of the admiral butterfly on John Shade's sleeve directly before his death. I think I'd like to re-read Pale Fire looking for remnants of Hazel as a ghost in the story. (Possibly a new term paper idea . . . better than the last.)
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6 years ago
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