NABOKOV, Vladimir

An aristocratic Russian emigré of profoundly conservative, anti-Soviet prejudices, Nabokov nonetheless wrote one truly avant-garde novel, a book so original and subtle that it is easily misunderstood, even by his academic biographers. Produced in the wake of the success of Lolita (1958) and Nabokov's early retirement from university teaching, Pale Fire (1962) consists of a long poem, attributed to an American poet named John Shade, followed by an elaborate commentary by Kinbote, an African-born scholar...