Another wholly different, baffling, brilliant book, full of word
plays and tricky meanings. "Man's life as commentary to abstruse /
Unfinished poem," writes the old poet, John Shade, in a long,
personal, old-man's poem about life and death. Shade (happily
married) and Charles Kinbote (homosexual) are teachers at Wordsmith
College. What Kinbote does with Shade's poem, after Shade's death,
supplies the kernel of the story - that, and what his deed does to
him; and the whole development with its odd perversions and
symbolisms is at times marvellously funny, often poignantly tragic.
Perhaps, since the obscure symbolism forces the reader into
reflecting Kinbote in a Kinbote-type, personal commentary, it would
be unfair to give away more of the plot (if so it can be termed).
The book is a box-within-boxes joke. Perhaps this is to be expected
of Nabokov, as are also the dazzling flash of reversible meanings,
puns, marvelously tangible writing, and cold, frightening
resemblances to reality. Major publisher backing, for this is
Nabokov's first novel written since Lolita. Count on intellectual
snob appeal. (Kirkus Reviews)
The famous American poet John Shade was murdered in 1959. This book contains his last poem, Pale Fire, together with a preface, a lengthy commentary and notes by Shade's editor, Charles Kinbote. Known on campus as the 'Great Beaver', Kinbote is haughty, inquisitive, intolerant, but is he - can he possibly be - mad, bad, even dangerous? As his wildly eccentric annotations slide into the personal, he reveals perhaps more than he should about 'the glorious friendship that brightened the last months of John Shade's life'.
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