The Vane Sisters
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The Vane Sisters is the second to last short story by Vladimir Nabokov, written in March of 1951; it is famous for providing one of the most extreme examples of an unreliable narrator. It is published in The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (1995). In the story, the author tells the reader something that he does not himself know.
The story involves a professor and his scandalous past with the two Vane sisters, Cynthia and Sybil. Early in the story, the author ridicules the misguided searches for acrostics by the paranoid, and refers to a "novel or short story (by some contemporary writer, I believe) in which, unknown to the author, the first letters of the words in its last paragraph formed, as deciphered by Cynthia, a message from his dead mother".
The final paragraph of the story is as follows: "I could isolate, consciously, little. Everything seemed blurred, yellow-clouded, yielding nothing tangible. Her inept acrostics, maudlin evasions, theopathies - every recollection formed ripples of mysterious meaning. Everything seemed yellowly blurred, illusive, lost."
When the final paragraph of the story is subjected to this technique, the result is as follows: "Icicles by Cynthia. Meter from me Sybil." So, in other words, at the end of the story the reader learns that the author is not actually the author of the piece, but rather his words are being influenced without his knowledge by the dead sisters.
The very name of Sybil hints at the trick of the final paragraph, as the word acrostic was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.
The apparent uniqueness of this narrative approach has created fame for this story, and Nabokov himself described this device as something that 'can only be tried once in a thousand years of fiction'. However, it may be that several other of Nabokov's works have similar riddles inside them yet to be discovered. The trick ending of "The Vane Sisters" originally went unnoticed when the New Yorker rejected the story, and it was only revealed when Nabokov wrote a letter to the chief editor, Katharine A. White, explaining the foundation of the story.
The story was previously published in the Hudson Review (Winter 1958-9) and Encounter (March 1959), and in the collections Nabokov's Quartet (1966), Nabokov's Congeries (1968; reprinted as The Portable Nabokov, 1971), and Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories (1975).
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| The Works of Vladimir Nabokov |
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| Novels : Mary • King, Queen, Knave • The Defense • The Eye • Glory • Laughter in the Dark • Despair • Invitation to a Beheading • The Gift • The Enchanter • The Real Life of Sebastian Knight • Bend Sinister • Lolita • Pnin • Pale Fire • Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle • Transparent Things • Look at the Harlequins! • The Original of Laura
Short Stories : The Wood-Sprite • Russian Spoken Here • Sounds • Wingstroke • Gods • A Matter of Chance • The Seaport • Revenge • Beneficence • Details of a Sunset • The Thunderstorm • La Veneziana • Bachmann • The Dragon • Christmas • A Letter That Never Reached Russia • The Fight • The Return of Chorb • A Guide to Berlin • A Nursery Tale • Terror • Razor • The Passenger • The Doorbell • An Affair of Honor • The Christmas Story • The Potato Elf • The Aurelian • A Dashing Fellow • A Bad Day • The Visit to the Museum • A Busy Man • Terra Incognita • The Reunion • Lips to Lips • Orache • Music • Perfection • The Admiralty Spire • The Leonardo • In Memory of L. I. Shigaev • The Circle • A Russian Beauty • Breaking the News • Torpid Smoke • Recruiting • A Slice of Life • Spring in Fialta • Cloud, Castle, Lake • Tyrants Destroyed • Lik • Vasiliy Shishkov • Ultima Thule • Solus Rex • Mademoiselle O • The Assistant Producer • "That in Aleppo Once..." • A Forgotten Poet • Time and Ebb • Conversation Piece, 1945 • Signs and Symbols • First Love • Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster • The Vane Sisters • Lance • Easter Rain Drama : Death • The Grandfather • The North Pole • The Tragedy of Mr. Morn • The Man from the USSR • The Event • The Waltz Invention Non-Fiction : Speak, Memory • Strong Opinions • Nikolai Gogol • Lectures on Literature • Lectures on Russian Literature • Lectures on Don Quixote • The Nabokov-Wilson letters • Selected Letters, 1940-1977 Miscellaneous : Poems and Problems • Lolita: A Screenplay • The Annotated Lolita • Carrousel |
