Vladimir Nabokov: The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight

[Peder]

Here is a detective story by Vladimir Nabokov! But it is not the usual: "Who dunnit?' Instead we have a "Who wuzzit?" Sebastian Knight has died, and his body already removed from his small flat in London, two weeks before the detective story even begins. Only a lone writing desk remains behind that might offer any clues. But, after our would-be detective reviews his meager childhood memories, he decides after two weeks -- better late than never -- to try to find out just who this Sebastian really was, in addition to being his half-brother of course. Please be forewarned.

This thread contains open discussion of clues and plot spoilers.

All are welcome! And, if you are game, there is still time to join the group who will follow our detective along the trail. There is still time to hear the family history. So let's sidle in through this door and stand at the back of the group, and listen to the buzz......

[pontalba]

Well it looks as though I came home just in time!
Peder, a marvelous opening shot! In order to find out "Who wuzzit" (LOL) we must begin at the beginning, yes?

...I am able to state that the morning of Sebastian's birth was a fine windless one, with twelve degrees (Reaumur) below zero...this is all, however, that the good lady found worth setting down..........Her name was and is Olga Olegovna Orlova--an egg-like alliteration which it would have been a pity to withhold.

Detective work indeed to find this lady. The twists and turns of his search take him on quite a round about trek.

[Peder]

My first reaction in reading Sebastian Knight was that, in the sequence we had read them, I had simply stepped out from the pages of Glory, through the looking glass, and straight into the pages of Sebastian Knight. With the very first sentence we are definitely in Nabokovian Europe.

"Sebastian Knight was born on the thirty-first of December, 1899, in the former capital of my country."

One guesses St Petersburg for "former capital," and that guess is soon confirmed later down the page.

And "former" capital? Again St. Petersburg, but now in a time after the Revolution. (google tells us that Moscow became the capital of Russia in 1918, and of the Soviet Union in 1922.)

And "1899?" Where have we heard that year before? Oh yes! Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 13, 1899 (old style) and, oh, yes, in the former capital of his country, St. Petersburg.

So far, we are only one sentence in, and all the scenery is in place for another comfortable and enjoyable Nabokov novel.

And speaking of sentences, many have commented on Proust's page-long sentences. Nabokov is no amateur either at the art of the semi-colon and the comma, as we are treated to a glorious page-long single sentence from the diary of Olga Olegovna Orlova, describing St. Petersburg. It begins:

"Her dry account cannot convey to the untraveled reader the implied delights of a winter day such as she describes in St. Petersburg; the pure luxury of a cloudless sky designed not to warm the flesh, but solely to please the eye..."

Here we read Nabokov's talent for seeing the artistic in a cold wintry day; can this nameless narrator be Vladimir himself? But the question changes after one soon reads of Sebastian inheriting from his mother:

... that strange almost romantic, passion for sleeping cars and Great European Express Trains, "the soft crackle of polished panels in the blue-shaded night, the long sad sigh of brakes at dimly surmised stations, the upward slide of an embossed leather blind disclosing a platform, a man wheeling luggage, the milky globe of a pale lamp with a moth whirling around it; the clang of an invisible hammer testing the wheels; the gliding move into darkness; the passing glimpse of a lone woman touching silver-bright things in her traveling case on the blue plush of a lighted compartment."

Or is Sebastian Vladimir?

No, we are not confused. We are in Nabokovia!

Peder

[Peder]

Originally Posted by pontalba

Well it looks as though I came home just in time!

Pontalba,
Glad you made it!
Twelve degrees (Reaumur) below zero sounds like a chilly night coming up.
Have to google to find out what that is in 'real' temperature.
Peder

[pontalba]

Originally Posted by Peder

My first reaction in reading Sebastian Knight was that, in the sequence we had read them, I had simply stepped out from the pages of Glory, through the looking glass, and straight into the pages of Sebastian Knight. With the very first sentence we are definitely in Nabokovian Europe.

The parallels were both interesting and distressing at the same time. A bit of "There but for the Grace of God go I (him)" It seemed to me at the time that love was the deciding factor of which path was taken. A mother's or lover's love, or lack of same.

[Peder]

Pontalba,

Get this willya!

Online Temperature Conversion

In any event, -12 deg Reaumur is +5 deg Fahrenheit!

Chilly,
Peder

[Peder]

Originally Posted by pontalba

It seemed to me at the time that love was the deciding factor of which path was taken. A mother's or lover's love, or lack of same.

Madame Expert on Love,
I assume you won't mind clarifying that a little bit?
For those of us who only heard the whistle as it went by but otherwise missed it entirely? :o
Peder

[steffee]

Firstly, who wuzzit? Tell me!

Secondly, 1899 is the birth year for both SK and our Vladimir Vladimirovich himself, could we take it there is an element of autobiography in this book? Of course, since Nabokov was well and truly alive at the time of writing, I mean that figuratively.

An unrelated thirdly, Proust really does know how to form a sentence, doesn't he? Jeez.

[steffee]

Originally Posted by pontalba

The parallels were both interesting and distressing at the same time. A bit of "There but for the Grace of God go I (him)" It seemed to me at the time that love was the deciding factor of which path was taken. A mother's or lover's love, or lack of same.

Wow, Pontalba, what great wording.

[steffee]

Since I have read only little over one chapter, is it okay if we compile a character list:

V - narrator and SK's half-brother? Same father?
Sebastian Knight - eponymous murder victim and writer
Olga Olegovna Orlova - "an egg-like alliteration" and the one whose diary our narrator found.
Virginia Knight - SK's mother?
Edward Knight - SK's maternal grandfather
Captain Belov - "a good friend of the family"
Palchin
Mr Goodman - author of a biography on SK

Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of these characters...

[pontalba]

Originally Posted by Peder

Madame Expert on Love,
I assume you won't mind clarifying that a little bit?
For those of us who only heard the whistle as it went by but otherwise missed it entirely? :o
Peder

Where Oh Where is that smilie with :crossed eyes:? I suppose will have to do in the pinch.

Martin was given in full a natural mother's love, but his father was, well the best I can put it, standoffish and outwardly cool towards Martin. And while M.'s mother did love him, it was seemingly to me a combination of overly possessive and detached. Martin was unable to form a lasting relationship with a woman. One can hardly count Sonia. And we know the End that came to Martin.

Sebastian, no matter how strange his mother was knew that she loved him. Plus he had the steadying love of the step-mother and his father. He was able to form a lasting and true relationship with Clare. Even if...oh well more on that later. As far as V is concerned, he had the unconditional love of both parents. The brothers end was quite different, and in spite of everything far better.

Clear as Mud?

And thanks Steffee :o

[pontalba]

Originally Posted by steffee

Since I have read only little over one chapter, is it okay if we compile a character list:

V - narrator and SK's half-brother? Same father?
Sebastian Knight - eponymous murder victim and writer
Olga Olegovna Orlova - "an egg-like alliteration" and the one whose diary our narrator found.
Virginia Knight - SK's mother?
Edward Knight - SK's maternal grandfather
Captain Belov - "a good friend of the family"
Palchin
Mr Goodman - author of a biography on SK

Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of these characters...

Right. Palchin is the fiance of the sister of a "friend" of SK and V's father, plus he lived with SK's mother after Virginia left, in fact he was the one that she left With.

Note that Nabokov says that the father never learned the name of his wife's lover "from her lips" p.7 He learned in a round about way on p.9

[pontalba]

Originally Posted by Peder

Pontalba,

Get this willya!

Online Temperature Conversion

In any event, -12 deg Reaumur is +5 deg Fahrenheit!

Chilly,
Peder

Amazing how you find these things!

Certainly too cold for me! /shivering now/

[Peder]

Originally Posted by steffee

Since I have read only little over one chapter, is it okay if we compile a character list:

V - narrator and SK's half-brother? Same father?
Sebastian Knight - eponymous murder victim and writer
Olga Olegovna Orlova - "an egg-like alliteration" and the one whose diary our narrator found.
Virginia Knight - SK's mother?
Edward Knight - SK's maternal grandfather
Captain Belov - "a good friend of the family"
Palchin
Mr Goodman - author of a biography on SK

Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of these characters...

Steffee,
It all sounds good to me.
Yes, V and SK same father.
Yes Virginia Knight, SK's mother
Yes Edward Knight her father
and no name that I have noticed for either their father or for V's mother.
Orlova, Belov, Goodman as you have them.
Palchin, Virginia's lover who broke the marriage.
PS and where did you find "V"? I only found it much later.

And glad to see you are here,
Peder

[steffee]

Originally Posted by pontalba

Even if...oh well more on that later.

Even if...?

Originally Posted by Pontalba

Note that Nabokov says that the father never learned the name of his wife's lover "from her lips" p.7 He learned in a round about way on p.9

Oh dear. Only page fifteen I get to before I have to reread already.

And thanks for telling me who Palchin is, I'll add that in...