Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0013802, Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:29:10 -0300

Subject
rear of a house, back-yard and porch ( Kinbote, Pale Fire)
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Kinbote writes about July 11th, "the night of great need":
"It was a hot, black, blustery night. I stole through the shrubbery to the rear of their house. At first I thought that this fourth side was also dark... a little back parlor where I had never been" (CK,lines 47-48)

The fourth side of Shade's house, the rear, was unobservable by Kinbote, unless he went out in the garden.

I'm unfamiliar with American architecture and "back parlors" , but logic allows me to suppose that these rooms at the rear of a house should be close to a "backyard". And yet, in the Foreword, Kinbote informs us that he could see Shade burning drafts in a "back-yard auto-da-fé" - from his porch ( Judge Goldsworth's porch).

Can anyone clarify my confusion?

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