

Going beyond conventionally untrustworthy narration, Nabokov presents an authorial consciousness that manipulates the narratory point of view through incredibly detailed encryptions, requiring the imaginative participation of readers in unmasking Nabokov’s second, “real” authorial plot.

Despite comparatively slim critical attention, the work marked a seminal moment in Nabokov’s literary career, as it initiated his experimentation with perceptual distortions such as mirroring, mimicry, optics, and doubling all through the frame of unreliable narration. Vladimir Nabokov’s fourth novel, The Eye, is consistently characterized as his most obscure work.
