Alongside the puzzles contained in Nabokov's fiction, scholars have been unable to untangle the seemingly contradictory relationship between, on one hand, the fiction and the beliefs and principles suggested by Nabokov's biography and, on the other hand, the statements he made outside of his work.

Through a close examination of Nabokov's father's political, moral, and aesthetic values and, more generally, Russian liberalism as it existed in the first few decades of the twentieth century, this provides persuasive answers to many long-standing questions in this deeply researched, innovative study. Showing the particular influence of the thought of Kant and Berkeley, it focuses on Nabokov's "most deceptively apolitical novels”: The Gift, Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada.