The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is one of Vladimir Nabokov’s most autobiographical novels and it has often been observed that Sebastian’s passionate affair with the femme fatale Nina Rechnoy is a dramatized extension of Nabokov’s infatuation with Irina Guadanini. In this book it is shown that the novel also conceals another, secluded, love affair Sebastian had with a man, which reflects the main episode in the life of Nabokov’s brother Sergey. By pursuing many biographical and literary references and allusions, and by disregarding the deceptive guiding by the narrator (Sebastian’s half-brother), this moving story about Sebastian’s silent love becomes brightly visible.
Jadual kandungan
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Annotations
Chapter 3: Motifs: Narrative
Chapter 4: Motifs: Identities
Chapter 5: Motifs: Death and Beyond
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
Mengenai Pengarang
Gerard de Vries’ first paper appeared in
Russian Literature Triquarterly in 1991 and he has written since many articles on Nabokov’s works, which were published in American, French and Russian academic journals. With D. Barton Johnson he wrote
Nabokov and the Art of Painting (2006).