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The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Vladimir Nabokov (Author) "Sebastian Knight was bom on the thirty-first of December 1899, in the former capital of my country ..." (more)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (29 Mar 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141185996
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141185996
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 155,868 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #25 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Nabokov, Vladimir
    #25 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Nabokov

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Product Description

Product Description

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 meaningful digs at Mr Goodman, Sebastian’s erratic and troubled persona remains as elusive as ever. As does the narrator’s. Do they exist or are they an illusion? In the unresolved confusion between the real and unreal there are no answers, for this is a book that defies summing up in its quest for human truth.

About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was born in St Petersburg. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English, most famously, <I>Lolita</I>. Between 1923 and 1940 he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language and established himself as one of the most outstanding Russian émigré writers.
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Sebastian Knight was bom on the thirty-first of December 1899, in the former capital of my country. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Missing brother, 22 Jan 2002
By A Customer
This is Nabokov's first novel in English and there is much to admire here: the shimmering descriptions; the tragi-comic misunderstandings; the rueful meditations on lost property (in this case a brother). The story concerns itself with V, who attempts to shade in the life of his recently deceased brother, the novelist Sebastian Knight. Knight, the writer, is perhaps the weakest element in the book - the quoted extracts and discussed work are a tad unconvincing: something N rectified in Pale Fire with the creation of John Shade. This is not a major Nabokov admittedly, but it is interesting for its autobiographical infarction: in Speak, Memory, N would talk movingly of his dead brother for a mere 2 pages - read them, I urge you - having exorcised much of his loss in The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. The writing is beautiful, though its archness may put some readers off - the comedy and characteristion should put them back on track again though. Worth reading after you've finished Lolita and Pale Fire and are looking where to go next. Two and a half stars.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A taste of what was to come, 23 Oct 2009
By A. J. Morson (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
While it falls short compared to later English works such as Lolita and Pale Fire, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is an underrated little gem in Nabokov's oeuvre.

There's an enigmatic narrator and plenty of postmodern play. But that's par for the course. What makes TRLOSB special is the sense of Nabokov finding his feet in his adopted literary language. That's not to say he ever succumbs to a clumsy sentence or a misplaced word - everything is as carefully written as one would expect from the Great One. What there is, though, is a certain vulnerability of tone not present in any of his other novels (including the apprentice work Mary). This is reflected in the narrator V, who does not exhibit the expressive arrogance of a Humbert or a Kinbote (or a Hermann, or a Van Veen...)

So there's a fascinating feeling of transition in TRLOSK, being as it is the bridge between the great Russian novels Despair and The Gift and the great English novels that would make Nabokov famous.

Written by any other author, TRLOSK would be considered a masterpiece - it's predictably pretty, intensely readable and highly thought-provoking. But Nabokov's best was so good, his merely 'very good' books risk being neglected.
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