Dear Jerry,
> Every invention feature of the solution that you impute to
> Nabokov--do alter egos really say they are so different in age
> and appearance from their real selves, by the way?--makes the
> puzzle less fair.
My interpretation of PF is based on my recognition that Nabokov is both scientist and literary artist and that he takes from both science and literature in creating PF. Actually, yes, the appearance of alternate personalities can be quite strikingly different and the first French cases in the 19th century were documented with photographs (sorry I'd like to be able to give a reference, but I have seen them and will look). It's one of the reasons that roles like Eve and Sybil are such treats for good actresses, too.
In J&H the two beings bear no resemblance to each other. Hyde is smaller (Nabokov discusses the significance of this in his lecture). Jekyll's friends who encounter Hyde clearly do not suspect any relationship to their friend. Another very interesting detail is the comparison of their hands - - Jekyll here is describing the sensation of waking up a
s Hyde:
" ... my eye fell upon my hand. Now, the hand of Henry Jekyll ... was professional in shape and size ; it was large, firm, white and comely. But the hand which I now saw ... was lean, corded, knuckly, of a dusky pallor, and thickly shaded with a swart growth of hair. It was the hand of Edward Hyde."
As Brian Boyd reminded us yesterday, Gradus has hairy arms (in Russian as in many other languages there is no distinction made between hand/arm).
In particular, I think it needs a fairly
specific explanation of what is "really" going on in Kinbote's
interactions with the Shades. Of course, you might differ.
I do and I don't. In his lecture on J&H Nabokov discusses the difficulties RLS had in presenting this kind of a story, and I think he had the same difficulties. In order to convince the reader that the two characters are separate individuals, Nabokov did have to chea
t a bit. That's how I understand the discrepancies that bother you.
CK (who the devil is CF? your mother?)
p.s. A very good question, by the way - - is Nabokov fair with the reader? Personally I think that in PF he is and he isn't. In Ada I think he's completely impossible.