Nabokov's Pale fire: the magic of artistic discovery

Abstract

Acknowledgments xi Introduction 3 PART ONE - THESIS: READING STORY AS DISCOVERY 15 1. Foreword 17 2. Poem 25 3. Commentary 37 4. Index 63 5. Fire 67 PART TWO - ANTITHESIS: REREADING IN SEARCH OF THE STORY BEHIND 75 6. Intrusions of the Real: Shade 77 7. Excursions from the Real: Kinbote 89 8. Problems: Shade and Kinbote 107 PART THREE - SYNTHESIS: RE-REREADING DISCOVERY AS STORY 127 9. Transformation 129 10. From Appalachia to Zembla: Woman Spurned 149 11. Pale Fire: Origins and Ends 173 12. A Poem in Four Cantos: Sign and Design 188 13. From Zembla to Appalachia: The Contrapuntal Theme 207 14. Pale Fire, palefire: The Spiral Unwinds 233 Conclusion 247 Notes 263 Bibliography 291 Index 299