A Scrambled Story and a Puzzle to Solve

Inside Vladimir Nabokov’s Head-Scratcher Classic ‘Pale Fire’

Imagine you write a story. Nothing long, just a few hundred words on a single piece of 8.5-by-11 inch paper, the kind you probably used in school if you are of a certain age.

Now, imagine you cut up this story into a dozen or so different and uneven pieces. 

Then you rearrange this puzzle of a story back in a different order, delicately taping each piece …