false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170780746m/71552.jpg 71552 20 "I am very happy that you liked that little book," wrote Vladimir Nabokov to Edmund Wilson in 1941. "As I think I told you, I wrote it five years ago, in Paris, on the implement called <I>bidet</I> as a writing desk--because we lived in one room and I had to use our small bathroom as a study." The book in question was <I>The Real Life of Sebastian Knight</I>. And despite its humble origins, Nabokov's first novel in English showed him to be in absolute command of his adopted language.<p> Like many of the author's later triumphs, this one revolves around a question of identity. The late Sebastian Knight, we discover, was a transplanted Russian novelist whose taste for linguistic trickery bears a certain resemblance to Nabokov's. Now his half-brother is attempting to reconstruct the existence of this elusive figure. As he readily admits, the raw material isn't exactly the stuff of melodrama: "Sebastian's life, though far from being dull, lacked the terrific vigour of his literary style." But even the most mundane facts prove difficult for the narrator to nail down. He does, on the other hand, describe Sebastian's creative processes in exquisite and accurate detail: <blockquote> His struggle with words was usually painful and this for two reasons. One was the common one with writers of his type: the bridging of the abyss lying between expression and thought; the maddening feeling that the right words, the only words are awaiting you on the opposite bank in the misty distance, and the shudderings of the still unclothed thought clamouring for them on this side of the abyss. </blockquote> Sebastian's real life--or anybody's, for that matter--refuses to yield up a verbal equivalent. Still, the narrator manages a kind of fraternal fusion with his subject on the book's final page, which suggests a fluid and very Nabokovian view of identity itself. For this reason, and for the splendors of its prose, <I>The Real Life of Sebastian Knight</I> is a necessary read. It's also safe to say that it's the very best novel ever written on a bidet. <I>--James Marcus</I> 1180092 1941 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (Penguin Modern Classics) total:731|5:214|4:300|3:180|2:34|1:3| 731 2881 966 53 5 2 false false Tue Jul 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 11:16:04 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 11:26:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false true Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Feb 17 20:40:14 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 20:55:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 4 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 05:23:51 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 18:01:49 -0700 2009
I personally thought Sebastian Knigh...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 22:26:07 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 10:50:42 -0700 2009
Със сигурност ще разгръщам тази книга отново и отново, тя не може да бъде прочетена от първия път и само веднъж...

(В романа има един ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jun 24 04:10:19 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 09:48:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 09:06:47 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 09:30:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 04 11:47:57 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 23:16:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 19 17:37:14 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 18:20:43 -0700 2009
Sebastian Knight is a (fiction...more...]]> 3 0 true false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 10:15:51 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 10:20:41 -0700 2008
Written in Nabokov's characteristic ornate prose, the descriptive meandering paragraphs about nothing wer...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 22:18:38 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 13:12:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Dec 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 21:02:27 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 21:10:16 -0800 2008 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Nabokov's first novel written in English, contains spectres that crop up in later novels. The neurotic, self-absorbed, obsessive narrator resurfaces in Pale Fire, as does the meaning obtained from misinterpretation (Shade's interpretation of another's near-death ex...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sat Feb 14 23:45:41 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 13:08:38 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Feb 01 01:34:29 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 01:37:05 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue Mar 07 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Jul 27 07:13:12 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 07:13:12 -0700 2009 In spite of being Nabokov's first novel written in English, this book contains a fair share of the themes & games encountered in the writer's later (and more widely known) works.
It may not be as 'perverse' - in a literary sense- as Lolita, yet there is enough 'leg-p...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 06:50:44 -0800 2009 Mon May 25 15:46:38 -0700 2009 Sebastian Knight feels a bit like Pale Fire in that our narrator is a person seeking to find out more about the life of a deceased author. In this case, the author is the narrator's half brother,the "person he most admires", so that he can write a biography about Sebastian's life. An inter...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Dec 11 01:00:42 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 01:11:56 -0800 2008 Try to find florid Nabokov's riddles here...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Nov 29 17:44:42 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 29 17:47:36 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sun Nov 23 19:00:54 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 19:01:12 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Tue Feb 10 19:02:09 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 19:02:52 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 16 21:13:43 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 29 09:55:04 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=71552