Nabokov and the Novel

Ellen Pifer

Published by Harvard University Press 1980

Nabokov and the Novel

Ellen Pifer

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674421486

Overview
Contents

About this book

Ellen Pifer challenges the widely held assumption that Nabokov is a writer more interested in literary games than in living human beings. She demonstrates how Nabokov arranges the details of his fiction to explore human psychology and moral truth, and she argues her case with style.

Focusing on the most highly wrought and aesthetically self-conscious of Nabokov's novels, Pifer shows how he deploys artifice to bring into bold relief what is real. In her chapter on King, Queen, Knave she reveals Nabokov's radical distinction between genuine and simulated human existence. She shows how, in Invitation to a Beheading and Bend Sinister, he contrasts "grotesque design" of collective existence with the individul's radiant internal life. In Despair, Lolita, and Pale Fire Nabokov's parody of the double illuminates the unique source of human consciousness. In Ada, as in the earlier Laughter in the Dark, the inhuman nature of aesthetic bliss qualifies its delights. Making clear the moral perception of reality that lies behind Nabokov's artistic strategies, Pifer offers a new assessment of Nabokov's fiction and of his contribution to the tradition of the novel.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	iii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
CHAPTER I. The Question of Character Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER II. Consciousness, Real Life, and Fairytale Freedom: King, Queen, Knave Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
CHAPTER III. Breaking the Law of Averages: Invitation to a Beheading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
CHAPTER IV. Putting Two and One Together: Bend Sinister Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
CHAPTER V. Singularity and the Double’s Pale Ghost: From Despair to Pale Fire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
CHAPTER VI. The Question of Realism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
CHAPTER VII. Heaven, Hell, and the Realm of Art: Adas Dark Paradise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
CHAPTER VIII. On the Dark Side of Aesthetic Bliss: Nabokov's Humanism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 197
Keywords: LITERARY CRITICISM / Russian & Former Soviet Union; Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977 -- Criticism and interpretation.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674421486

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1980
ISBN: 9780674421479