The Vane Sisters

The Vane Sisters

"The Vane Sisters" is the penultimate short story by Vladimir Nabokov, written in March 1951. It is famous for providing one of the most extreme examples of an unreliable narrator. It was first published in The Hudson Review and Encounter in 1959, later in Nabokov's Quartet (1966), Nabokov's Congeries (1968; reprinted as The Portable Nabokov, 1971), Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories (1975), and The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (1995).

The short story revolves around two professors, of which one is the narrator, and their respective affairs with two students, the Vane sisters, for whom the story is titled. The narrator recounts his experiences with the two sisters, and ultimately meditates upon the possibility of intervention by ghosts into his reality.