Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic DiscoveryPale Fire is regarded by many as Vladimir Nabokov's masterpiece. The novel has been hailed as one of the most striking early examples of postmodernism and has become a famous test case for theories about reading because of the apparent impossibility of deciding between several radically different interpretations. Does the book have two narrators, as it first appears, or one? How much is fantasy and how much is reality? Whose fantasy and whose reality are they? Brian Boyd, Nabokov's biographer and hitherto the foremost proponent of the idea that Pale Fire has one narrator, John Shade, now rejects this position and presents a new and startlingly different solution that will permanently shift the nature of critical debate on the novel. Boyd argues that the book does indeed have two narrators, Shade and Charles Kinbote, but reveals that Kinbote had some strange and highly surprising help in writing his sections. In light of this interpretation, Pale Fire now looks distinctly less postmodern--and more interesting than ever. |
From inside the book
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The Magic of Artistic Discovery Brian Boyd. BRIAN BOYD NABOKOV'S Pale Fire The Magic of Artistic Discovery NABOKOV'S Pale Fire. Book Cover.
... discovery / Brian Boyd. p. Includes bibliographical references and index. eISBN 1-4008-0087-0 1. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899–1977. Pale fire. I. Title. II. Title: Pale fire. cm. To BRONWEN We are discoverers: and discovery is ...
The Magic of Artistic Discovery Brian Boyd. To BRONWEN We are discoverers: and discovery is a creative art. (KARL.
The Magic of Artistic Discovery Brian Boyd. We are discoverers: and discovery is a creative art. (KARL POPPER, Conjectures and Refutations) Contents xi Acknowledgments 3 Introduction 15 PART ONE • THESIS:
The Magic of Artistic Discovery Brian Boyd. Contents. xi Acknowledgments 3 Introduction 15 PART ONE • THESIS: READING STORY AS DISCOVERY 17 1. Foreword 25 2. Poem 37 3. Commentary 63 4. Index 67 5. Pale Fire 75 PART TWO • ANTITHESIS ...