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Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery
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Bibliographic Detail
Publisher Princeton Univ Pr
Publication date December 1, 1999
Pages 303
Binding Hardcover
Book category Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13 9780691009599
ISBN-10 0691009597
Dimensions 1.25 by 6.75 by 9.75 in.
Weight 1.35 lbs.
Availability§ Out of Print
Original list price $47.50
Other format details university press
§As reported by publisher
Amazon.com says people who bought this book also bought:
Pale Fire | The Whole Harmonium
Summaries and Reviews
Amazon.com description: Product Description:


Pale Fire is regarded by many as Vladimir Nabokov's masterpiece. The novel has been hailed as one of the most striking early examples of postmodernism and has become a famous test case for theories about reading because of the apparent impossibility of deciding between several radically different interpretations. Does the book have two narrators, as it first appears, or one? How much is fantasy and how much is reality? Whose fantasy and whose reality are they? Brian Boyd, Nabokov's biographer and hitherto the foremost proponent of the idea that Pale Fire has one narrator, John Shade, now rejects this position and presents a new and startlingly different solution that will permanently shift the nature of critical debate on the novel. Boyd argues that the book does indeed have two narrators, Shade and Charles Kinbote, but reveals that Kinbote had some strange and highly surprising help in writing his sections. In light of this interpretation, Pale Fire now looks distinctly less postmodern--and more interesting than ever.


In presenting his arguments, Boyd shows how Nabokov designed Pale Fire for readers to make surprising discoveries on a first reading and even more surprising discoveries on subsequent readings by following carefully prepared clues within the novel. Boyd leads the reader step-by-step through the book, gradually revealing the profound relationship between Nabokov's ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, and metaphysics. If Nabokov has generously planned the novel to be accessible on a first reading and yet to incorporate successive vistas of surprise, Boyd argues, it is because he thinks a deep generosity lies behind the inexhaustibility, complexity, and mystery of the world. Boyd also shows how Nabokov's interest in discovery springs in part from his work as a scientist and scholar, and draws comparisons between the processes of readerly and scientific discovery.


This is a profound, provocative, and compelling reinterpretation of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.




Editions
Hardcover
Book cover for 9780691009599
 
The price comparison is for this edition
from Princeton Univ Pr (December 1, 1999)
9780691009599 | details & prices | 303 pages | 6.75 × 9.75 × 1.25 in. | 1.35 lbs | List price $47.50
About: Pale Fire is regarded by many as Vladimir Nabokov's masterpiece.
Paperback
Book cover for 9780691089577
 
Reprint edition from Princeton Univ Pr (October 15, 2001)
9780691089577 | details & prices | 6.00 × 9.00 × 0.75 in. | 1.00 lbs | List price $35.00

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