Books

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1962. First edition. Fine/Near Fine. A Fine copy of the book in very Nearly Fine jacket. Red topstain bright and unfaded, book clean and fresh, appearing unread and unused. Jacket showing very minimal age toning to the spine, one small piece of tape at the verso of the spine. A lovely copy of a difficult book to find in collectible condition. "On first read, Pale Fire is a book that appears to be a different book entirely. It takes the form of a long biographical poem written by the eminent and recently deceased poet John Shade, followed by several hundred pages of annotations by Shade's friend and fellow professor Charles Kinbote. Very quickly, an astute reader becomes aware of three things: 1) Kinbote is unstable. 2) Kinbote is convinced that Shade's poem 'Pale Fire' is not about Shade at all but about Kinbote's own delusional history as the exiled king of the (possibly fictional) country of Zembla. 3) Kinbote's 'interpretation' of the poem takes…

Pale Fire is a 1962 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled 'Pale Fire', written by the fictional poet John Shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary and index by Shade's neighbor and academic colleague, Charles Kinbote. Together these elements form a narrative in which both fictional authors are central characters. The novel has been hailed as one of Nabokov's most complex and rewarding works and one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

The first edition of 'Pale Fire' published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1962 can be identified by its hardcover format, the lack of additional printings mentioned on the copyright page, and its distinctive cover featuring an illustration of a peacock.