The unfettered forces of imagination, the ability to treat life as fiction and fiction as life, combine in pale fire to create a dazzling novel of wit and high seriousness. Pale fire by vladimir nabokov is a masterpiece of literature that seems to transform into a remarkably personal experience for anyone who approaches the text. Pale fire is the name of a 999 line poem, written in four cantos, by an american poet named john shade. Kinbote appears to be the scholarly author of the foreword, commentary and index surrounding the text of the late john shades poem pale fire, which together form the text of nabokovs novel. The result is a parody of critical commentary in which pale fire is all but forgotten. In the course of initially academic but increasingly deranged annotations to shades text, kinbote s writing reveals a comic melange of narcissism and megalomania. A blackbound mockup of a standalone edition of the poem pale fire, the 999line centerpiece of nabokovs novel pale. The foreword tells us that shade has recently died and that kinbote, ignoring the pleas of shades widow and numerous academic shadeans, has absconded with the manuscript of pale fire to. The novel has been hailed as one of the most striking early examples of postmodernism and has become a famous test case for theories about reading because of the apparent impossibility of deciding between several radically different interpretations. Vladimir nabokovs pale fire is on fire the boston globe. The book reads in many ways like a game full of mysteries.
He said he wanted to send me something, an object, an icon of sorts. In pale fire nabokov offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures. Charles kinbote, who writes the commentary and introduction to the published version of the poem pale fire. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 315 pages and is available in paperback format. The poem has been published posthumously with a foreword and detailed commentary by. Free download or read online pale fire pdf epub book. Kinbote retreats to a mountain cabin in cedarn, where he madly writes his critical edition of the poem. The main characters of this fiction, classics story are john shade, sybil. Kinbote is convinced shades poem, pale fire, is not about shade at all but about kinbotes own delusional history as the exiled king of. We know very little about john shade besides the biographical information that is provided in his poem. The versipel charles kinbote in vladimir nabokovs pale fire. The first edition of the novel was published in 1962, and was written by vladimir nabokov.