The Eye (novel)
Author | Vladimir Nabokov |
---|---|
Original title | Соглядатай (Sogliadatai) |
Translator | Dmitri Nabokov |
Language | Russian |
Publisher | Phaedra[1] |
Publication date | 1930 |
Published in English | 1965 |
The Eye (Russian: Соглядатай, Sogliadatai, literally 'voyeur' or 'peeper'), written in 1930, is Vladimir Nabokov's fourth novel. It was translated into English by the author's son Dmitri Nabokov in 1965.
At around 80 pages, The Eye is Nabokov's shortest novel. Nabokov himself referred to it as a 'little novel' and it is a work that sits somewhere around the boundary between extended short story and novella. It was produced during a hiatus in Nabokov's creation of short stories between 1927 and 1930 as a result of his growing success as a novelist.[2]
As in many of Nabokov's early works, the characters are largely Russian émigrés relocated to Europe, specifically Berlin. In this case, the novel is set in two houses where a young Russian tutor, Smurov, is renting room and board.
Plot summary
The action of the novel largely begins after the (perhaps fatal) suicide attempt of the protagonist. This occurs after he suffers a beating at the hands of a cuckolded husband (the protagonist has been having an affair with a woman called Matilda with whom he has also, apparently, been rather bored).[3] After his supposed death, and assuming everything in the world around him to be a manifestation of his 'leftover' imagination, his "eye" observes a group of Russian émigrés as he tries to ascertain their opinions of the character Smurov, around whom much uncertainty and suspicion exists.
Themes
The novel deals largely with indeterminate locus of
The work is the first one in Nabokov's oeuvre involving a first-person narrator and, specifically, one who imposes his fantasy world upon the real world. This was to be a structure that was developed further in later works such as
References
- ^ "The Eye by Vladimir NABOKOV on Between the Covers".
- ^ "16 – The Eye". Mantex. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- JSTOR 307461.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-0354-1. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
Further reading
- Vernon, David (2022). Ada to Zembla: The Novels of Vladimir Nabokov. Edinburgh: Endellion Press. ISBN 978-1739136109.