Although Nabokov's reaction to Butler's thesis was harsh (SO 96 and Zimmer, Guide 207), her essay contains useful data and ideas. Diana Butler's 1960 essay in which she argued that Lolita was a restaging of Nabokov's search for the female of the Lycaeides sublivens Nabokov is a prior case of relating Nabokov lepidopteral pursuits and his fiction. Additionally, Dieter Zimmer read and made detailed comments on an earlier version of this paper.

This article is largely based upon information in his Guide (114-16) and upon personal communications. Zimmer, editor of the Rowohlt Vladimir Nabokov Gesammelte Werke and an authority on the lepidoptera in Nabokov's fiction. The author would like to express his special thanks to Dieter E. ' The Eye's (initially) nameless narrator and anti-hero, a morbidly self-conscious young man, attempts to commit suicide after being physically humiliated by an oft-cuckolded husband. I am going to argue that the genesis of this seminal novella lies in a literal butterfly chase. Originally entitled Sogliadatai, meaning 'the spy' or 'the surreptitious observer,' it introduces some of Nabokov's most important themes and devices: a version of the two world theme (one world delusional, the other 'real'), a first-person unreliable narrator, questions of identity, etc. BARTON JOHNSON (Santa Barbara) That Butterfly in Nabokov's Eye' Nabokov's 1930 novella, The Eye, is one of his least investigated books. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The Eye by Vladimir Nabokov