The European Nabokov Web, Classicism and T.S. Eliot

Demonstrates that Nabokov’s Pale Fire has a classical unity and represents a direct attack on T.S. Eliot’s philosophical position, particularly as given in The Waste Land and as represented by Eliot’s later tendency for conservatism in literature, politics and religion. Davies places Pale Fire in its vast European context, forming a bridge between Russian and European literature.