The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (The Penguin Vladimir Nabokov Hardback Collection) - Hardcover

Nabokov, Vladimir

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0141196998 ISBN 13: 9780141196992

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2012

Synopsis

Spurred on by admiration for his novelist half-brother and irritation at the biography written about him by Mr Goodman ('his slapdash and very misleading book'), the narrator, V, sets out to record Sebastian Knight's life as he understands it. But buried amid the extensive quoting, digressions, seeming explanations and digs, Sebastian's erratic and troubled persona remains as elusive as ever.

Nabokov's first novel written in English, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a nuanced, enigmatic potrayal of the conflict between the real and the unreal, and the futile quest for human truth.

About this title

About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was one of the great writers of the twentieth century, as well as a translator and lepidopterist. His works include, from the Russian novels, The Luzhin Defense and The Gift; from the English novels, Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire and Ada; the autobiographical Speak, Memory; translations of Alice in Wonderland into Russian and Eugene Onegin into English; and lectures on literature. All of the fiction and Speak, Memory are published in Penguin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0141196998
• ISBN 13: 9780141196992
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256