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Pale Fire
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Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.16
You Save: $ 2.79 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
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Pale Fire Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679723424
ISBN: 0679723420
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 1989-04-23
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1989-04-23
Studio: Vintage
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679723424
ISBN: 0679723420
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 320
Publication Date: 1989-04-23
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1989-04-23
Studio: Vintage
Editorial Review of Pale Fire
In Pale Fire Nabokov offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures: a 999-line poem by the reclusive genius John Shade; an adoring foreword and commentary by Shade's self-styled Boswell, Dr. Charles Kinbote; a darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and one-upmanship, and political intrigue.
Customer Reviews of Pale Fire
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Enjoyable at Multiple Levels
Review: As someone who reads and interprets American fiction for a living (pity me), this is the first novel I've read in ages that challenged me and then rewards the reader's efforts when the depths of the multiple layers of storytelling started to show themselves. Don't think you've got it solved when you realize that Kinbote isn't who you thought he was. He's not THAT second person either. And there's ghosts -- several of them -- who take possession of the story in various ways. I don't want to wreck your delight by giving away more. I also recommend Brian Boyd's critical work on the novel, _Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery_, an amazing interpretation of the novel that blows it wide open.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Clever
Review: A clever construction and master of words in an essentially unreadable work that fails to hold interest either on a character level or, for lack of a better term, plot. This book is like watching a painter work, marveling at what he does with great appreciation, while the actual painting itself is unappreciable.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Mind bending!
Review: A story within a story, a madman reworking and annotating another's poetry and attributing minute details as if they were secret references of his life. How perfect a story Nabokov has written. A jewel of a book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: brilliant
Review: I adore books that change and grow as you read and reread them. Nabokov's Pale Fire definitely fits the bill. This novel really exemplifies the excessive amount of freedom within Nabokov's creative process - it is boundless, performative and very much alive. It's almost as if Nabokov makes his very own strict set of literary rules and then turns right around and breaks them for no other reason then purely enjoying smashing boundaries into infinite pieces and reworking them into a unique masterpiece. It's almost as if he deconstructs his writing himself only to let the act of reading it serve as a creative process in its own right, which then carefully reconstructs his words into something very, very special. Strange disconnects surface more than occasionally, bobbing their heads up and down in the story - yet these are done in such a fluid, effortless manner that the resulting effect is nothing short of awesome(to borrow a favorite word of my brother, Alex). I highly recommend this.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A strange and brilliant work
Review: A strange and brilliant work, written in the luscious prose style that could only be Nabokov. Leaves you wondering what you just read. Very funny too.
Review Summary: Enjoyable at Multiple Levels
Review: As someone who reads and interprets American fiction for a living (pity me), this is the first novel I've read in ages that challenged me and then rewards the reader's efforts when the depths of the multiple layers of storytelling started to show themselves. Don't think you've got it solved when you realize that Kinbote isn't who you thought he was. He's not THAT second person either. And there's ghosts -- several of them -- who take possession of the story in various ways. I don't want to wreck your delight by giving away more. I also recommend Brian Boyd's critical work on the novel, _Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery_, an amazing interpretation of the novel that blows it wide open.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Clever
Review: A clever construction and master of words in an essentially unreadable work that fails to hold interest either on a character level or, for lack of a better term, plot. This book is like watching a painter work, marveling at what he does with great appreciation, while the actual painting itself is unappreciable.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Mind bending!
Review: A story within a story, a madman reworking and annotating another's poetry and attributing minute details as if they were secret references of his life. How perfect a story Nabokov has written. A jewel of a book.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: brilliant
Review: I adore books that change and grow as you read and reread them. Nabokov's Pale Fire definitely fits the bill. This novel really exemplifies the excessive amount of freedom within Nabokov's creative process - it is boundless, performative and very much alive. It's almost as if Nabokov makes his very own strict set of literary rules and then turns right around and breaks them for no other reason then purely enjoying smashing boundaries into infinite pieces and reworking them into a unique masterpiece. It's almost as if he deconstructs his writing himself only to let the act of reading it serve as a creative process in its own right, which then carefully reconstructs his words into something very, very special. Strange disconnects surface more than occasionally, bobbing their heads up and down in the story - yet these are done in such a fluid, effortless manner that the resulting effect is nothing short of awesome(to borrow a favorite word of my brother, Alex). I highly recommend this.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A strange and brilliant work
Review: A strange and brilliant work, written in the luscious prose style that could only be Nabokov. Leaves you wondering what you just read. Very funny too.