The Eye (Nabokov novel)

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The Eye (Sogliadatai), written in 1930, and translated into English by Dmitri Nabokov in 1965, is Vladimir Nabokov's fourth novel. At just over 100 pages it also his shortest novel and perhaps his least often read. Like many of Nabokov's early novels, the characters are largely Russian émigrés living in Europe. In this case the novel is set in two houses where a Russian émigré, Smurov, has found board.

The action of the novel is largely takes place after the attempted (or possibly successful) suicide of the protagonist. After his supposed death, his "eye" observes a group of Russian émigrés as he tries to ascertain their opinions of the character Smurov, around whom much uncertainty and suspicion exists.

The novel deals largely with indeterminate locus of identity and the social construction of identity in the reacions and opinions of others. Smurov exists as fraud, nobleman, scoundrel, "sexual lefty", thief and spy in the eyes of the various characters. As the protagonist obsessively collects these observations he attempts to gain a stable perspective on Smurov, whom we only belatedly find out is the protagonist himself.