That in Aleppo Once... | Identity of a Poet
In the following essay, the author demonstrates that the narrator’s identity as a poet is his defining characteristic, and discusses the significance this has for the story as a whole.
Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘‘That in Aleppo Once . . .’’ is in the form of a letter from the narrator, a poet, to a friend named V., who is a fiction writer. In this letter, the narrator tells the story of his strange, brief marriage, and does so in a way that reveals the poetic nature of his thinking and writing about life. Clearly, being a poet is much more than a hobby or occupation for this man; it is his identity and it defines the way he perceives and relates to the world. His love is not the wife of whom he writes but rather poetry, writing, and words. In his letter, this love...
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