Pale Fire by NABOKOV, Vladimir (1899-1977) - 1962

London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962. First British Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression of "Nabokov's most perfect novel" (Brian Boyd), and also his most intricate, ingenious, and controversial. 8vo: 315,[1]pp. Publisher's black cloth, spine lettered in silver, white dust jacket printed in lime-green and black, priced 21s net. A superb copy, apparently unread, firmly bound and clean throughout. Juliar A35.2. Time 100. Modern Library 100 Best Novels. On November 29, 1960, on the French Riviera, Nabokov took up an index card and wrote the twelve brilliant opening lines of the poem "Pale Fire"-"the hardest stuff I ever had to compose." The "bizarre, three-legged race of a novel," in which he embedded the poem, takes its title from Shakespeare's Timon of Athens: "The moon's an arrant thief,/ And her pale fire she snatches from the sun." When complete, the novel was comprised of the long narrative poem (999 lines, divided into four cantos) followed by a much longer set of footnotes (five times as long as the poem) "written by an obsessive, increasingly deranged annotator. Charles Kinbote, a gay professor at a small New England college, may or may not be a noble-born expatriate from the exotic Eastern European principality of Zembla. He may or may not have stolen the manuscript he's annotating, which he is convinced is really all about him. He is unquestionably, unhealthily obsessed with John Shade, the placid, Robert Frost-like poet who composed the poem. Beyond that all bets are off, and the questions ramify without end. Pale Fire is the kind of novel you can happily get lost in: a house of mirrors with no exit, a labyrinth with no endpoint." (Time 100) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).