(urth) Strongly unreliable narrators

Jerry Friedman jerry_friedman at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 19 14:27:24 PDT 2011


> From: Adam Thornton (IO) <adam at io.com>
> On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:58:56 -0700 (PDT), DAVID STOCKHOFF
> <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:
> > Humbert Humbert?
...

He's massively unreliable in Booth's sense of differing  from the author's 
norms, but he does seem to knowingly let you know most of the facts.  Though 
some unreliable-narrator fans think Humbert invented the epiphany while 
listening to the children's voices, the murder of Quilty, and much of the rest 
of the book.

> Charles Kinbote, or perhaps, "Charles Kinbote", of course, as long as
> we're on Nabokov.

He's the first who came to my mind.

Also, Agatha Christie narrators who committed the murder, and the third-person 
narration in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".

Three where the question is whether they're reliable or not: the narrator of 
"The Tell-Tale Heart"; Horselover Fat, in VALIS, as I recall; and the governess 
in "The Turn of the Screw", a classic example.

Another definitely unreliable narrator:

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K
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R
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The narrator of the first third of Icehenge, and maybe the narrator of the 
second third--it's been a while.

Jerry Friedman



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