Self-satisfied. delighting in the many fascinating quirks of his own personality. Hermann Hermann is perhaps not to be taken too seriously. But then a chance meeting with a man he believes to be his double reveals a frightening split in Hermanns nature. With shattering immediacy. Nabokov takes us into a deranged world. one full of an impudent. startling humour. dominated by the egotistical and scornful figure of a murderer who thinks himself an artist.