Invitation to a Beheading
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| Invitation to a Beheading | |
 2001 Penguin Modern Classics edition |
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| Author | Vladimir Nabokov |
|---|---|
| Original title | Приглашение на казнь |
| Translator | Dmitri Nabokov in collaboration with the author |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publication date | 1935-1936 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA & reissue ISBN 0-679-72531-8 (Vintage, September 19, 1989) |
Invitation to a Beheading (Russian: Приглашение на казнь, Priglasheniye na kazn') is a novel by Russian American author Vladimir Nabokov. It was originally published in Russian in 1935-1936 as a serial in Contemporary Notes (Sovremennye zapiski), the most respected literary journal of the Russian emigration. It was published in book form in 1938, and in English in 1959, translated by Nabokov's son, Dmitri Nabokov, under the author's supervision.
While Nabokov stated in an interview that of all his novels he held the greatest affection for Lolita, it was for Invitation to a Beheading that he held the greatest esteem.[1]
[edit] Plot introduction
The novel tells the story of a man named Cincinnatus C., a citizen of some unnamed dream country, who is imprisoned and sentenced to death for "gnostical turpitude". He is surrounded by his jailer (Rodion), the director of the jail (Rodrig), and his lawyer (Roman), all of whom have names reminiscent of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Indifferent to the absurdity and vulgarity around him, Cincinnatus finds his true life in the journal, where he records his visions of an ideal world. Taken to be executed, he refuses to believe in either death or his executioners, and as the ax falls the false world dissolves and he joins the spirits of his fellow visionaries in "reality."
[edit] References
- ^ Nabokov's interview. (06) Wisconsin Studies [1967]. Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature. Lib.ru. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
[edit] Bibliography
- Meinolf Schumacher: Gefangensein – waz wirret daz? Ein Theodizee-Argument des 'Welschen Gastes' im Horizont europäischer Gefängnis-Literatur von Boethius bis Vladimir Nabokov, in Horst Wenzel / Christina Lechtermann (eds.): Beweglichkeit der Bilder. Text und Imagination in den illustrierten Handschriften des 'Welschen Gastes' von Thomasin von Zerclaere, Böhlau, Köln, 2002, pp. 238-255 ISBN 3-412-09801-9
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