As in two of Vladimir Nabokov’s novels, Priglashenie na kazn’ (1935-1936 serial, 1938; Invitation to a Beheading, 1959) and Bend Sinister (1947), the main theme here is collectivist tyranny. The story illustrates how an imaginative, sensitive individual is forced to conform to the vulgar Philistinism of the unimaginative collective. Although the word “Nazi” is never mentioned, the story is obviously a condemnation of the Nazi regime under which Nabokov himself lived for a time in Berlin. It also is an implicit condemnation of collectivist oppression in the Soviet Union and of a widespread human inclination to stifle creative eccentricity.

“Cloud, Castle, Lake” may also be an allegory of life, which is a sometimes unpleasant “pleasure trip” through time toward inevitable death. Before his departure, Vasili has a dim vision of some perfect, timeless world full of happiness. That world seems attainable when he comes on “the lake with its cloud and its castle, in a motionless and perfect correlation of happiness.” Here, so he senses, he can stop time, abandon the “pleasure trip” of life, and enter into the realm of motionless serenity. As he is soon horrified to discover, however, one is not allowed to abandon the journey. Furthermore, nothing really is motionless; even beautiful nature is constantly changing. The ideal of static serenity, for which Vasili yearns, does not exist on earth.

A strange twist in the final paragraph illustrates why Nabokov’s works cannot be read as realistic fiction. The disillusioned Vasili visits his maker, the writer, and asks to resign from humankind. Although he has just learned that life does not accept such resignations, the writer grants him that release without demur. Note that in the first line of the story the narrator terms Vasili “one of my representatives.” Throughout the world of his fiction, Nabokov uses the words “representative” and “agent” to refer to imaginary personages or alter egos that he creates to perform any number of functions in his works. In addition to serving as the protagonist of this story, Vasili Ivanovich appears to work for his creator as a collector of fine detail from nature, to be used by the writer in his fiction. See, for example, the passage in which “his precious, experienced eyes noted what was necessary,” followed by a lovely description of a dry needle hanging in a fir grove. Furthermore, in many of his works Nabokov, or the narrator who writes in his name, plays the role of benevolent god of the fiction, mercifully releasing tormented characters. Each of the two novels that have the closest affinities with “Cloud, Castle, Lake” (Invitation to a Beheading and Bend Sinister) ends with a similar sort of release. It is as if the writer were saying, “Yes, in real life there is no escape from time and human cruelty, but since I am inventing all of this, I can let poor Vasili go.” What happens, however, to a fictional character after he is released from his role as a human being? The disintegration of his personality amounts to an escape resembling death. Is the writer who “releases” Vasili really so benevolent after all? Complex philosophical questions are raised when Nabokov openly treats his characters as fictive rather than pretending that they are real human beings.