The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

by Vladimir Nabokov

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Nabokov's first novel in English, was completed in Paris in 1938, first published by New Directions in 1941, reissued in 1959 to wide critical acclaim and now relaunched again, with an appreciative introduction by Pulitzer-Prize winning critic Michael Dirda.

This, the narrator tells us, is the real life of famous author Sebastian Knight, the inside story. After Knight's death, his half-brother sets out to penetrate the mystery of the famous English novelist's life, but he is impeded by the false, the distorted, the irrelevant. Yet the search proves to be a story quite as intriguing as any of Sebastian Knight's own books, as baffling, and, in the end, as uniquely rewarding. On one level, this literary detective story has pungent points to make about the role of the artist in a society basically hostile to the creative spirit. On another, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight probes the essential problem of the ambiguity of human identity: Just who was Sebastian Knight?

Reviewed by rohshey on

4 of 5 stars

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I'm just guna come out and say it.

This is better than Lolita.

It is fictional biography/mystery. It is one or the other or both. And Nabokov is definitely having fun with the various conventions and forms that these two genre frequently utilize.

As in many of Nabokov’s novels, not much really occurs. Tea, train-rides, conversations in a garden, and yet so much is happening behind the scenes, in between these small moments.

Nabokov frequently laughs at his readers but I’ve never felt that more strongly than here in this novel. It was as if he was looking over my shoulder and poking me in the ribs. “Huh…uh….huh…you see that. Did you see that?!”

The only way to really experience a Vladimir Nabokov novel is to pick one up and dive in. There are some things you will catch and then there are those that you will completely miss. The joy is in knowing that there is always more to discover.

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  • 11 October, 2017: Reviewed