Vladimir Nabokov's early novel is the dazzling story of the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of international Grandmaster, Luzhin develops a lyrical passion for chess that renders the real world a phantom. As he confronts the fiery, swift-swooping Italian Grandmaster, Turati, he brings into play his carefully devised defence. Making masterly play of metaphor and imagery, The Luzhin Defense is the book that, of his early works, Nabokov felt 'contains and diffuses the greatest warmth'.
- ISBN10 0141196939
- ISBN13 9780141196930
- Publish Date 1 March 2012 (first published 1 December 1994)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 28 July 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
- Imprint Penguin Classics
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English