Yet in this respect they seem to be really terrible parents, the
kind of parents who take a child with a problem and make it ten times
worse by their visible disappointment in the child for having the
problem at all. Indeed if the Boyd hypothesis is correct, this odd moral
weakness for physical beauty is built into the fabric of ghostly
tenderness in the book, since Hazel's 'reward' for enduring ugliness in
her human life is to become a beauty as a butterfly. Is it just me, or
is this unpleasant and shallow?

Thanks for your time, and apologies if this is an old chestnut for
Nabokovians.

Elspeth Jajdelska

This is a real breath of fresh air, even if it has been touched on before, and even if there is an answer to it.

 

Anthony Stadlen