Summary and analysis of V.Nabokov's novel Camera Obscura

Camera obscura in translation from Latin - "dark room". The nature of the amazing optical phenomenon is the basis of this ancient prototype of the camera. It is an absolutely isolated from the light box with a tiny hole in one of the walls through which an inverted image of what is on the outside is projected onto the opposite wall.

Camera obscura ... Nabokov used it as a central metaphor in the novel of 1933, bearing the same name.

The work takes place in Berlin in the late twenties. With a successful specialist in the field of art, and in particular painting, Bruno Krechmar had a banal story - he was consumed by a passion for a sixteen-year-old Magda, a girl from a dysfunctional family with a dark past. The feeling so captivated him that he leaves the family, leaving his wife and daughter.

After the wife Annelise gives her husband a young mistress, the couple moves to live in the Krechmarov's house. In addition, Bruno invests money in a questionable film project, in which Magda receives a secondary role.

Soon, Magda accidentally meets the first, who once abandoned her lover, the young cartoonist Horn, which is still not indifferent. She begins to meet secretly with Gorn, deceiving, but still using Kretschmar's money, especially since the thirty-year-old Horn has no money, but a lot of debts.

Krechmar, together with Magda, go on a car trip through Europe, and Horn drives with them. They continue to cynically deceive Bruno, lulling his jealousy with the false homosexuality of the cartoonist.

Soon Krechmar accidentally learns about the treachery of Magda and in a fit of jealous rage tries to kill her. The girl calms him, but Bruno insists on an immediate departure, without waiting for the Horn. On the road Krechmar does not cope with the management, which is the cause of the accident, in which Bruno blinds.

Horn wrote Bruno an offended letter in which he confirmed once again his homosexuality and said that he was going to America, although in fact he continued traveling with Magda and Kretschmar. After discharge from the hospital blind man Bruno prescribed rest by doctors, which is what the criminal duo use. They shoot in Switzerland, in a mountainous remote area, a mansion and live in it three together, and the presence of Horn is a secret for the blind Bruno.

As all sense organs, including hearing, become aggravated, Kretschmar has painful suspicions, but Magda and Horn cynically mock him. Exhausted and desperate with jealousy Bruno rescues Max, brother-in-law. He returns it to Berlin to the first wife of Anneliese, who loves him as before.

But after learning that Magda comes to Berlin for things, Krechmar, insulted by her betrayal, tries to kill her. Magda takes his gun from him, during a short fight a shot sounds, and Bruno falls dead.

Vladimir Nabokov ("Obscure Camera"), inspired by an artistic experiment, tried to create a work that is devoid of edification and moralizing, which is not characteristic of literary works of Russian literature. The author coldly and impartially portrays the distorted perception of the hero, embraced by passion.

The first meeting of the heroes took place in the velvet dusk of the cinema hall. The light of the flashlight snapped fragmentaryly that shine of the eye, then the softly delineated cheek of the girl, which reminded him of the painting of old masters. Do not forget that Krechmar is an art critic.

The dark hall of the cinema - this is the camera obscura hero. Being in the wrong world, turned upside down, he is forced to obey his distorted logic. Sensual blindness lasts so long that, in the end, it turns into physical blindness. Remaining blind literally, Krechmar, whom the camera obscura released only before death, finally "saw" the world as it is.