John Shade - Shade's Commentator

Shade's Commentator

John's next-door neighbor is Charles Kinbote, who may or may not be suffering delusions of grandeur. Kinbote is the presenter and annotator of Shade's poem. Some critics assert that Kinbote is Shade's invention, while others maintain that Shade is a literary device or a fiction that Kinbote employs to further his own ends. Other interpretations are possible; Zembla — the country Kinbote claims to come from — is after all a land of "resemblances."