Scavenger Hunt

As Gradus walks through the index cards and lines of Shade's poem, he is on a scavenger hunt, jumping around Europe and finally the States looking for Kinbote. In the same way, we, the readers, are jumping around the commentary from page to page looking for order in this cacophony of notes. We are trying to find the crown jewels, we are trying to find out who Charles Kinbote really is, we are trying to find the real reason why Gradus is on a murder mission. If Gradus is a figment of Kinbote's imagination, then are we not a figment of Nabokov's imagination? Now take into account that imagination is more real than "reality." So I'd say yes, we are a figment of Nabokov's imagination, just as important to his novel as Shade and Kinbote and Gradus, for without us his novel is nothing. It takes a competent reader to read this book the way it should be read - as a literary scavenger hunt.