Author(s): Michael Wood

Literature

This text explores the web of language, uncertainties and arrogance which makes Vladimir Nabokov such a master of fiction - arguing that he is neither the aetheist he liked to pretend to be, nor the heavy breathing moralist recent critics make him. The author looks at major works like Pnin, Lolita, Pale Fire and Ada as well as early works like The Real Life od Sebastian Knight and selected short stories. There are also detailed discussions of Nabokov's ideas of literature, memory, pity and pain.