Pale Fire Audiobook By Vladimir Nabokov cover art

Pale Fire

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Pale Fire

By: Vladimir Nabokov
Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
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A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.

©1962 Vera Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov (P)2010 Audible, Inc Absurdist Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Funny Witty Unreliable Narrator Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

"This centaur-work, half poem, half prose . . . is a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality and moral truth. Pretending to be a curio, it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century." (Mary McCarthy, The New Republic)

"Of all [Nabokov's] inventions, Pale Fire is the wildest, the funniest and the most earnest. It is like nothing on God's earth." (New York Herald Tribune)

"A monstrous, witty, intricately entertaining work . . . done with dazzling skill." (Time)

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Clever Wordplay • Multilayered Narrative • Brilliant Literary Puzzle • Intriguing Structure • Satirical Commentary
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A masterclass in elegant prose and clever humor, a literary tour de force that continues to enchant--a rich tapestry of irony and satire, inviting readers to question the nature of authorship, reality, and madness.

elegant prose and clever humor

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Brilliant. Surprisingly audiobook friendly despite the structure of the text. Really amusing and believable voice acting.

Genius

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

With all certainty, T am sure it will lead to greater things by Nabokov.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Pale Fire?

The reading of the Cantos Poem and the reader,s display of his great voice, all of Audible's telling of this great book is wonderful, for sure magic.

Which scene was your favorite?

There is not a particular scene of merit, Nabokov goes on and on and each momemt if studied is a thrill in each novel he creates.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I read this book very much younger, like with Lolita I could not find the pace of the information, now as my experience in the library increased, I love his writing. One must understand Nabokov, he teases one for reaction only, which he knows a studied reader will enjoy, I always laugh, hand over mouth not to insult him, but the whole experience is fully an act by both me and the writer, a very personal thing, he being the genius, of course. I love Nabokov for years, my confession to all, he never fails me!

Any additional comments?

Nabokov asks me to spend every molecule, of many, of my restless mind with a net gathering frail butterflies, as his example, in this he teaches the ways of life which are simple for complicated wanderers, like me and you.

Butterfly Frail

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I think the readers accent accentuated the absurdity of this story. to presents itself as a poem with notes. the poem is okay the story is the notes. there's a sense and then most nebokav that the world is not what most of us experience it is not what the narrator experiences, but that helps us in some ways to better perceive our own world

absurdist amusing

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You have to give this book a chance. It's a little rough to get started but once you catch all the implications, it's a funny and brilliant look at academia and humanity.

I laughed out loud at a few lines and then I felt this rather sad pathos start to come over me. It's just a spoof, right? A brilliant spoof, but the book is merely satire and so we shouldn't be disturbed by it. But it is disturbing and it runs a lot deeper than spoof.

The feeling you'll experience are real.

Even the title...

Give it a chance. Buy a hard copy. Try. It's certainly one of the finest assembly of words ever.

Brilliant, Touching and Fun

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Very interesting and unique book. I didn't like the performance as much but the story itself was great.

Interesting

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Narrative performance and production altogether outstanding. Nabokov's unreliable narrator perfect companion to his Lolita.

Brilliant performance, dazzling witty novel

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One of the funniest, most absurdly brilliant books I've ever read. I find it amazing that Nabakov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. There must be a reason for this. Perhaps Nabakov was trying to not just protect me, but my whole family from the fame and pain that would no doubt have accompanied the public's inquisitiveness and the critics' vampirism if this information had been made plain and obvious. That is what I love about Nabakov. He is a gentle ghost of a poet that exists in many levels and in many times and in many spaces simultaneously. I think his integrity in lying about and hiding my influence is both beautiful and nobel and certainly shaking with a heterosexual, Russian poet's naiveté

A Gentle Ghost of a Poet

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The two different narrators aided in the enjoyment of the story. I especially liked the main narrator with his appropriate accent. The story is artful and complex. Some parts of the poem were very moving. I found the end index portion brilliant. The subtle summary was hilarious.

Wonderfully Complex Story Aided by Matching Narration

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This was a bit of a let down honestly after the awesome manipulation of Lolita. The poem itself is wonderful, but then all the analysis of it and subsequent narrative that is woven takes a while to get to its point. Definitely influential, but the narrator here isn't helping by being so dry. The prose comes off as dry. I get the humor that comes in later, maybe if I knew it was funny to begin with I'd have approached it differently. I came to enjoy how it was a mockery of literary criticism.

It's okay

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