Signs and Symbols

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Signs and Symbols is a short story by Vladimir Nabokov, written in English and first published in The New Yorker on May 15, 1948. The magazine briefly titled it Symbols and Signs; Nabokov later restored the original title.

Plot: An elderly, Russian Jewish couple living in exile visit their mentally ill son in a sanatorium on his birthday. They’re told he has attempted suicide and cannot be seen. On the way home, the husband decides to take him out of the sanatorium. The story ends with a series of mysterious phone calls: two misdialed calls for "Charlie" and a third ring at the end.

We learn about the couple’s life: exile after the revolution, support from the husband’s brother Isaac, a German maid, an aunt named Rosa, relatives killed in the Holocaust, and a nephew who is a famous chess player. The son has “referential mania”—the belief that everything around him is a veiled reference to him. This paranoia worsens away from familiar surroundings and is linked to the idea of reference in psychology.

The New Yorker wanted changes; Nabokov resisted, and the story was printed mostly as he wrote it. Four editorial changes remained: the inverted title, section breaks shown as ellipses, two paragraphs joined, and a correction from “beech plum” to “beach plum” for a jelly. Some scholars see these edits as part of the story’s signs and symbols.

Scholars also point to hidden clues—like the paragraph counts that suggest 1947—and note that Nabokov intended a second, hidden story behind the surface one. Critics disagree about what that deeper tale is, but many say the point is to lure readers into over-reading, mirroring the son’s condition.