De: Jansy Mello [mailto:jansy.mello@outlook.com]
Enviada em: quinta-feira, 5 de fevereiro de 2015 19:45
Para: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] Blog reports on "literary myssteries" and Pale Fire

 

 

Literary Mysteries: Vladimir Nabokov’sPale Fire

EDWARD A. GRAINGER

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov(Lolita, Ada, or Ardor) is not what one would call a traditional mystery story. You won’t find it among the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Father Brown, or Phillip Marlowe in the mystery section of your local bookstore. Instead it’s shelved in the classics section with Ulysses,The Adventures of Augie March,Mrs. Dalloway, and other noted literary titles (Pale Fire came in at #53 on the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels). And, yet, I can’t think of a greater mystery.
Pale Fire presents a puzzle and then begins unraveling the plot through a set of carefully planted clues, like bread crumbs for an inquisitive robin, and like any good riddle, it serves up these morsels as red herrings that take the reader far off course. But Pale Fire is not so much a whodunit (though those elements certainly exist) but a who-wrote-it? Of course, literally, Nabokov penned it but, let me clarify: [   ] Part of the enjoyment—in an analogy a mystery buff can relate to—is that it’s like finding Jack the Ripper’s identity. You can feel you’re get close to the murderer, but the ultimate revelation is always slightly out of reach. For the record, Nabokov himself presented one answer, going so far to say that Kinbote eventually commits suicide. However, according to Wikipedia, critic Michael Wood claimed, "This is authorial trespassing, and we don't have to pay attention to it.”
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