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Title: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0-679-72342-0 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 April, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.63 (59 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Nabokov's Tour de Force
Comment: Pale Fire is the name of a 999-line poem in four cantos by the "distinguished American poet" John Shade, published posthumously in a lovingly prepared edition with a foreword and detailed commentary by the Zemblan literary scholar Charles Kinbote. Pale Fire is also the name of the novel by Vladimir Nabokov in which the poem is written by Shade and annotated by Kinbote, who are Nabokov's creations. The novel is actually written in the form of poem and scholarly apparatus, not omitting a thorough index. It is a perfect and perfectly original union of form and meaning. It is also wickedly, outrageously funny.
The poem itself is a complicated, beautiful, mysterious achievement. It reveals the character of John Shade so completely and movingly that we have to keep reminding ourselves that it was actually written by Nabokov, himself. The poem is the heart of the novel, literally and figuratively, although the commentary no doubt constitutes the most interesting reading. Pale Fire is Shade's final work; possibly his greatest work. It is the product of every thought and experience in a long, thoughtful life, and it also contains that entire life: childhood, adolescence, marriage, fatherhood, old age and death. The title refers to the "pale fire of time," and is taken from a poem by Yeats and not from Shakespeare, as Kinbote confidently suggests. Or is Nabokov simply leading us on a merry chase? Better check Timon of Athens to be sure.
And Kinbote is frequently wrong in his confident suggestions in the commentary. He identifies allusions where none exist; fails to recognize those that are actually there (he is writing his notes in a remote cabin in the Rockies and complains that he has no books to check his references), and suggests interpretations which are clearly, hilariously, wrong. The hapless Dr. Kinbote has got it into his head that Pale Fire (the poem) is really about himself, and his commentary is an audacious attempt to demonstrate this.
So, almost ignoring what is actually present in the poem, he proceeds through the commentary to give a detailed history of his own life and times, often revealing far more than he really means to do. And it turns out to be quite a good story, because Kinbote, a native of the remote northern European country of Zembla, has had quite an adventurous past. It is only a pity that it is quite irrelevant to Shade's poem. Kinbote just happens to be a man who doesn't do anything by halves; even the most innocuous phrase of the poem is "demonstrated" to be a cryptic reference to some event in Kinbote's life. Pale Fire is nothing if it is not great fun.
But Pale Fire is not merely amusing and inventive. Kinbote's commentary seems to be everything literary criticism should not be; but it is actually only an extreme, exaggerated version of what literary criticism truly is. Kinbote attempts to rewrite Shade's poem in his own image and likeness, but this is true to a greater or lesser extent--or a more or less subtle extent--of every critic, amateur or professional.
Pale Fire is thus a complex, and ultimately rather touching, demonstration of the way people have of reading their lives into books and reading books into their lives, like Kinbote. (And also, the way we have of writing our lives into books and writing books into our lives, like Shade.) It is an affirmation of the power of literature, of the power of books to help us make sense of our lives, and of the impossibility of distinguishing precisely where art ends and life begins. To quote John Shade:
I feel I understand/ Existence, or at least a minute part/ Of my existence, only through my art,/ In terms of combinational delight;/ And if my private universe scans right,/ So does the verse of galaxies divine/ Which I suspect is an iambic line.
Almost every reader can remember that one particular novel, poem or play that seemed to have been written for him and him alone. The one the reader took so personally, it changed his entire outlook on life and which even now he cannot discuss rationally or impartially. Every passionate reader knows of just such a book or even books. So, perhaps we should spare one or two sympathetic thoughts for the poor, but smitten, Dr. Kinbote even as we laugh uproariously at his well-intentioned mistakes.
Rating: 5
Summary: A fantastic literary overture!
Comment: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov has an absolutely marvelous sense of humor that is unbecoming a professor of literature at Harvard. Good for him! The humor of this book is unmistakable & is transparent to even the most naive of Nabokov's readers. That this gentleman can write a book that is hilarious and at the same time a work of depth and genius is awe inspiring.
"Pale Fire" is the tale of a pedantic, psychotic, misogynistic literary critic who attempts to write an overly-elaborate critique of a poem written by a recently deceased scholar. What is so amusing is how this academician commits so many undergraduate fallacies such as reading too much into a poem and saying "the poet must have had me in mind when he wrote this." He catches erudite allusions only to miss the most obvious references. In the meantime, he also grapples with the demons of his hypochondriac unconscious which make him think that someone or something is "after" him.
This is a wonderful book that has very few peers. For those other reviewers who found that it lacked depth, I would suggest that they read it again. If they still don't find profundity, I would recommend that they read it a third time....a fourth time, etc. until they see what is really "going on" and that the book may be all fun and games, but is fun and games centered around a recondite maze of allegories. A book for the more daring spirits amongst us (and for those who have been waiting a book that makes fun of literary critics......)
Rating: 2
Summary: pale fire is too "pale"
Comment: nabokov probably had more fun writing this book than you will have reading it. he was a novelist, poet, college professor, and critic which covers all of the characters in this book. he has particular fun with the critic who tries to analyze every aspect of the 999 line poem and bend it to meet his desired application rather than the clear intent of the author. this at times can be entertaining and funny, but it is overused and losses its originality quickly.
the story wished to be told by the critic, kinbote, about his native country and the overthrow of its king adds nothing to the novel. that is probably why the poet, john shaw, didn't write about it to begin with.
the real value of the book is the "pale fire" poem of john shaw. it speaks for itself and really requires no interpretation.
although the structure of the book, half poem-half novel, is creative, nabokov never brings the concept past the inanities of the selfabsorptive dr kimbote. the book that starts bright with "pale fire" dims in the hands of kinbote.
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Title: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by VLADIMIR NABOKOV ISBN: 0679729976 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723161 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723412 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Speak, Memory : An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723390 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Ada, or Ardor : A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679725229 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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