Smurov's Fate

Smurov, a fussily self-conscious Russian tutor, shoots himself after a humiliating beating by his mistress's husband. Unsure whether his suicide has been successful or not, Smurov drifts around Berlin, observing his acquaintances, but finds he can discover very little about his own life from the opinions of the distracted, confused fellow-émigrés.

The Novel's Themes

Nabokov's shortest novel, The Eye, is both a satirical detective story and a wonderfully layered exploration of identity, appearance, and the loss of self in a world of word-play and confusion.