Pale Fire

‘One of the greatest books I’ve ever read. Its heart is strange, but it is huge; let yours beat in response’ MARY GAITSKILL

Pale Fire, a 999-line poem, is the final work of the celebrated – and recently murdered – American author, John Francis Shade.

Here that poem is transcribed, introduced and annotated (at length) by Shade’s fellow scholar, neighbour and apparent friend, Charles Kinbote.

Approaching this task with gusto, Kinbote’s annotations reveal conclusive evidence of his own impact on Shade, disguised references to the northern land of Zembla, which he may or may not have once ruled over, and fuel for his many preoccupations and paranoia.

And – as his annotations become more desperate, more deluded, more deranged – Kinbote unintentionally sheds new light on the poet’s last days and the pair’s ‘glorious friendship’.

A murder mystery, a work of wild invention, a reimagining of what the novel can do, a piece of exquisite comedy, Pale Fire is widely regarded as Nabokov’s masterpiece and one of the most brilliant novels ever written.

A W&N Essential with an introduction from Mary Gaitskill

Author Biography

VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH NABOKOV was born on 23 April 1899, in St Petersburg, Russia, the elder son of an aristocratic, cultured, politically liberal family. As a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Cambridge. Between 1923 and 1940, he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language. In 1940 he, his wife and son moved to America, where he taught at Wellesley, Harvard and Cornell. His best-known novel, Lolita, brought him worldwide fame. In 1973 he was awarded the American National Medal for Literature. He died in 1977 in Montreux, Switzerland.