Pale Fire

novel by Nabokov

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Pale Fire, novel in English by Vladimir Nabokov, published in 1962. It consists of a long poem and a commentary on it by an insane pedant. This brilliant parody of literary scholarship is also an experimental synthesis of Nabokov’s talents for both poetry and prose. It extends and completes his mastery of unorthodox structure.

The 999-line poem in heroic couplets upon which the novel is centred is the masterwork of an academic, John Shade. This work is stolen and “edited for publication” by Shade’s neighbour and colleague Charles Kinbote, a professor at Wordsmith College in New Wye, Appalachia, who is suffering from paranoia and the onset of madness. Kinbote believes he is the exiled king of Zembla and that the poem is a Zemblan epic with references to his own life. He twists every detail of Shade’s poem into a version of his own history.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.