That Butterfly in Nabokov's Eye

Abstract

Nabokov's 1930 novella, The Eye, is one of his least investigated books. Originally entitled Sogliadatai, meaning "the spy" or "the surreptitious observer," it introduces some of Nabokov's most important themes and devices: a version of the two world theme (one world delusional, the other "real"), a first-person unreliable narrator, questions of identity, etc. (Johnson, "Eyeing" and "Eye"). I am going to argue that the genesis of this seminal novella lies in a literal butterfly chase. ' The Eye's (initially) nameless narrator and anti-hero, a morbidly self-conscious young man, attempts to commit suicide after being physically humiliated by an oft-cuckolded husband.