Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov (1962)
“A deranged scholar hijacks a dead poet's masterpiece to tell the story of a deposed king who may or may not be himself.”
Character Analysis
Kinbote is one of the most complex creations in twentieth-century fiction — simultaneously a delusional academic, an exiled king, a homosexual man in a homophobic era, a literary critic of occasional brilliance, and a deeply lonely human being. His unreliability is not a trick but a condition: he cannot see the poem he is annotating because his own need is too great. Whether he is a real king, a Russian professor named Botkin, or something else entirely, his pain is authentic and his voice is unforgettable.
Grandiose, Latinate, defensively academic. Long sentences with multiple qualifications. Frequent use of 'one' instead of 'I' when performing royal dignity. Drops into confessional urgency when the mask slips.