Books

Limited Edition. Originally published in America by Putnam in 1962. The forty-third publication of the Arion Press. One of 26 lettered copies (of a total edition of 226), printed letterpress, on large paper, bound in shimmering lavender linen cloth covered boards, gilt-threaded end-tabs, with accompanying small "note-card"-sized text volume of the poem--both volumes in publisher's custom blond cloth slipcase. 284pp./81pp. Both volumes lettered "R". A tour-de-force of imaginative fiction, presented as a poem followed by an interpretative "Commentary" by fictional critic Charles Kinbote. Fine. Q10432.

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.