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.