Details
Synopsis
Generally considered one of Nabokov's greatest works, PALE FIRE consists of a 999-line poem written by a professor named John Shade, and a scholarly commentary on it by his colleague, Charles Kinbote. The novel is a satire of literary scholarship and American university life; it is also a study of creativity in both its constructive and destructive guises--and a remarkable work of poetry as well. Despite its complexity, PALE FIRE was a best-seller when it appeared in 1962, and was nominated for the National Book Award.
| Details | | Series: | Vintage International Series |
| Size | | Length: | 315 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.1 in | | Weight: | 8.0 oz |
Publisher's Notes
First Line: ""Pale Fire," a poem in heroic couplets, of nine hundred ninety-nine lines, divided into four cantos, was composed by John Francis Shade (born July 5, 1898, died July 21, 1959) during the last twenty days of his life, at his residence in New Wye, Appalachia, U.S.A."
Industry Reviews
"Too clever by half. But a pleasure."
letter to Nancy Mitford - Evelyn Waugh (05/19/1962)
"I read it with amusement, but it seems to me rather silly."
letter - Edmund Wilson (05/20/1962)
"[I]t cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the very great works of art of this century, the modern novel that everyone thought was dead and that was only playing possum."
New Republic - Mary McCarthy (06/04/1962)
"[M]y award for Novel of the Century goes to Nabokov's PALE FIRE....The Judge's Rationale: PALE FIRE is the most Shakespearean work of art the 20th century has produced, the only prose fiction that offers Shakespearean levels of depth and complexity, of beauty, tragedy and inexhaustible mystery....Following a brief foreword, the novel opens with a 999-line poem in rhymed heroic couplets formally reminiscent of Alexander Pope, but written in accessible American colloquial language at least on the surface. Please don't be intimidated by the poem's length or formality; it's a pleasure to read: sad, funny, thoughtful, digressive, discursive, filled with heart-stopping moments of tenderness and beauty."
New York Observer - Ron Rosenbaum (12/06/1999)
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