The short story, “That In Aleppo Once…” by Vladimir Nabakov, is typical of Nabakov’s work in that it has sexual preoccupation as one of its chief concerns. Further, it also illustrates his tendency to illustrate characters who are aware of one reality and then suddenly find themselves thrust into another. Such a character is the narrator of “That In Aleppo Once…,” who realizes in the final paragraph of the work that, “Somewhere, somehow, I have made some fatal mistake,” (Nabakov, 1958: 153). He is referring to the act of leaving his wife and this paper will theorize that the reason he left his wife is because he had his illusions of love all mixed up with his illusions of sexuality, loyalty and fidelity. This paper will analyze these three aspects of the narrator that eventually combine to make him leave his wife, a decision he realizes too late is a fatal mistake. A conclusion will address the significance of “That In Aleppo Once…” where readers applying its lessons to their modern lives is concerned.
The beginning of the short story is very significant because it shows the narrator remembering of the days when he was filled with idealism, illusion and the hope, curiosity and fascination with all things worldly that can only occur in youth. He reminds his friend, “of the days when we wrote our first udder-warm bubbling verse, and all things, a rose, a puddle, a lighted window, cried out to us: I’m a rhyme! Yes, this is a most useful universe. We play, we die: ig-rhyme, umi-rhyme. And the sonorous souls of Russian verse lend a meaning to the wild gesticulation of trees or to some discarded newspaper sliding and pausing, and shuffling again, with abortive flaps and apterous jerks along an endless wind-swept embankment. But just now I am not a poet,” (Nabakov, 1958: 141-142).
This is in stark contrast to the narrator at the end of the poem who tells his same friend he is miserable and tha...