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THE EYE
by NABOKOV, Vladimir
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper with a few small holes on the spine and some tanning
- Seller
-
Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Phaedra, 1965. First Edition. Wraps. Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper with a few small holes on the spine and some tanning. Advance Copy in wraps with dustwrapper with the publisher's address line on the copyright page and Trident Press noted on the rear dustwrapper flap. The dustwrapper is identical to the trade issue but slightly different in size extending above the top of the covers and resulting in inevitable wear. Review Slip laid in.
Synopsis
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokovs were known for their high culture and commitment to public service, and the elder Nabokov was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism and one of the leaders of the opposition party, the Kadets. In 1919, following the Bolshevik revolution, he took his family into exile. Four years later he was shot and killed at a political rally in Berlin while trying to shield the speaker from right-wing assassins. The Nabokov household was trilingual, and as a child Nabokov was already reading Wells, Poe, Browning, Keats, Flaubert, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, alongside the popular entertainments of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne. As a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his honors degree in 1922. For the next eighteen years he lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin and supporting himself through translations, lessons in English and tennis, and by composing the first crossword puzzles in Russian. In 1925 he married Vera Slonim, with whom he had one child, a son, Dmitri. Having already fled Russia and Germany, Nabokov became a refugee once more in 1940, when he was forced to leave France for the United States. There he taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He also gave up writing in Russian and began composing fiction in English. In his afterword to Lolita he claimed: "My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses--the baffling mirror, the black velvet backdrop, the implied associations and traditions--which the native illusionist, frac-tails flying, can magically use to transcend the heritage in his own way." [p. 317] Yet Nabokov's American period saw the creation of what are arguably his greatest works, Bend Sinister (1947), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962), as well as the translation of his earlier Russian novels into English. He also undertook English translations of works by Lermontov and Pushkin and wrote several books of criticism. Vladimir Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Charles Agvent
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 017199
- Title
- THE EYE
- Author
- NABOKOV, Vladimir
- Format/Binding
- Wraps
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper with a few small holes on the spine and some tanning
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Phaedra
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1965
- Keywords
- Modern Firsts
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literary Firsts; Advance Review Copy; Vladimir Nabokov;
Terms of Sale
Charles Agvent
All books subject to prior sale. Payment with order; institutions may be billed. Postage additional: $11.00 for the first book, $6.00 each thereafter. Overseas postage billed at approximate cost. Pennsylvania residents must add 6% sales tax. Mastercard, Visa, and American Express accepted. We are also open to reasonable payment terms. A book may be returned within 7 days of receipt for any reason provided it is in the same condition as sent and prior notice is given. Please insure returns for their full value.
About the Seller
Charles Agvent
Biblio member since 2003
Fleetwood, Pennsylvania
About Charles Agvent
We carry a diverse and select stock with major specialties including Modern and 19th Century Literary First Editions, Signed Books & Autographs (especially Presidential and Literary), and Limited Editions Club books. We have been in business since 1987 and are proud to be members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Dustwrapper
- Also known as book jacket, dust cover, or dust wrapper, a dust jacket is a protective and decorative cover for a book that is...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
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