The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
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Narrated by:
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Luke Daniels
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By:
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Vladimir Nabokov
About this listen
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, the first novel Nabokov wrote in English, is a tantalizing literary mystery in which a writer’s half brother searches to unravel the enigma of the life of the famous author of Albinos in Black, The Back of the Moon, and Doubtful Asphodel. A characteristically cunning play on identity and deception, the novel concludes “ I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is I, or perhaps we both are someone whom neither of us knows.”
©1941 Vladimir Nabokov (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Beneath the brilliance that was behind The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was a dark side. A dark side which produced magnificent tales of the unseen influences in our lives, such as "Mr. Jones", "The Eyes", "Kerfol", "The Ladie's Maid's Bell", and "The Looking Glass".
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Ghastly Shadows of the Feminine Condition
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Grey Mask
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- Narrated by: Diana Bishop
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The first of the classic mysteries featuring governess-turned-detective Miss Silver, who investigates a deadly conspiratorial ring. Charles Moray has come home to England to collect his inheritance. After four years wandering the jungles of India and South America, the hardy young man returns to the manor of his birth, where generations of Morays have lived and died. Strangely, he finds the house unlocked, and sees a light on in one of its abandoned rooms. Eavesdropping, he learns of a conspiracy to commit a fearsome crime.
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The shaky first of a long, strong series
- By Phebe on 07-21-15
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The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to Baghdad
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The Man in the Brown Suit is Agatha Christie at her best, as a young woman makes a dangerous decision to investigate a shocking “accidental” death she witnesses at a London tube station. In Agatha Christie’s classic crime adventure novel, They Came to Baghdad, a bright young adventure seeker in the Middle East finds more excitement than she bargained for when a wounded spy expires in her hotel room.
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Agatha Christie and Emilia Fox are Fantastic!
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The Forsyte Chronicles, Vol. 2
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John Galsworthy's magnificent trilogy of power and passion chronicles the wealthy Forsyte family. The complete Chronicles are divided into three volumes, containing nine books and four interludes in total. Volume 2, A Modern Comedy, focuses on Soames's vivacious daughter, Fleur. Soames tries constantly to protect her but is baffled by the carefree attitudes in post-war London. Fleur and her husband Michael Mont host society gatherings, but her previous affair with Jon Forsyte leaves embers of a passion that are ready to ignite - with dreadful consequences.
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Very worthwhile
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By: John Galsworthy
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The Turmoil
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Bigger, newer, faster. Demolish and rebuild, then demolish and rebuild again. Smoke, soot, and noise are the badges of prosperity, and growth is for growth's sake.
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Fast and heartwarming
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The Great Gatsby
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Set against a backdrop of jazz music, bootlegging, and lavish parties, The Great Gatsby is the story of Midwesterner Nick Carraway’s curious introduction to the decadent world of his mysterious, wealthy neighbor Jay Gatsby, whose thirst for riches is matched only by his tragic obsession with the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. This dangerously propulsive tale of glitz and glamour continues to be relevant as listeners long for escapist novels—a chance to flee into Gatsby’s famed mansion and lose oneself in the rush of opulence.
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Alive and Wild! I finished it same day.
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Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance
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London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright, and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. With the help of fellow author Arthur Conan Doyle he sets out to solve the crime - but it is Wilde's unparalleled access to all degrees of late Victorian life, from society drawing rooms to the underclass, that will prove the decisive factor in their investigation....
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needs glue
- By connie on 11-13-11
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The Young Clementina
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Charlotte Dean enjoys nothing more than the solitude of her London flat and the monotonous days of her work at a travel bookshop. But when her younger sister unceremoniously bursts into her quiet life one afternoon, Charlotte's world turns topsy-turvy. Beloved author D. E. Stevenson captures the intricacies of post-World War I England with a light, comic touch that perfectly embodies the spirit of the time. Alternatively heartbreaking and witty, The Young Clementina is a touching tale of love, loss and redemption through friendship.
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Miss Dean's Dilemma
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Piccadilly Jim
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He was a gossip columnist’s dream. Piccadilly Jim’s life was a collage of broken promises and drunken brawls. And his straight-laced Victorian aunt was not amused. So, she decided to reform him. Unfortunately, her reform project started at a time when Jim had fallen in love and had already decided to reform himself. Thus, life became complicated. Jim pretends to be himself - a beautiful display of Wodehousean logic; hilarious indeed!
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Glad to Finally Have Frederick Davidson’s Version
- By John on 11-09-22
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Mr. Fox
- A Novel
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Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently....
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A Great Novel, just Poor for Audio
- By James A. Dittes on 08-13-16
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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What listeners say about The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
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- C
- 12-27-11
Not his best book
I love Nabokov, and relative to his other books this one is not so good. Also his use of English is so good I think reading the books instead of listening is more appropriate, so that you can go back and reread passages.
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- Thaddeus
- 07-21-16
Nabokov's book for writers
This isn't regarded as one of Nabokov's best work. It's not even among his better. But as his first book in english, and as a story about introspection and identity, it speaks to the writer profoundly. One has the sense Nabokov is taking the reader through the experience of entering a new language and a new identity. The novel is almost instructional in that it reads as a guide to discovering the self through writing. The performance was clear, engaging, and excellent overall. Certainly a fulfilling six hours.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Darwin8u
- 12-08-13
A dry run at big, complex themes
Nabokov's tenth novel and first published novel written in English, 'The Real Life of Sebastian Knight' for me seemed like a dry run at big, complex themes he would later use in Ada (funky plot structure) and Pale Fire (meta-fixation on another 'artists' literary work) along with a complex, Möbius-like narrative. Is this a story written by literary author Sebastian Knight about a real or imagined younger brother's search for himself? OR is it (as it first seems) a story about a younger brother writing a biography about a dead or imagined famous writer/brother, and following clues,etc about his half brother's life? Can it be both? How much of it is a funky memoir of Nabokov's own emotional state after leaving Russia?
To me Nabokov was writing on a chiral strip that appears to have two-sides, but might just have one. Clever? Absolutely, but just not in the same league as his great English novels (Pale Fire, Lolita, Ada) or even his very very good Russian and English novels (Despair, Pnin, Glory, etc) . Still, for Nabokov's first novel written in a foreign (although no tongue for VN seems foreign), it dances and moves quite nicely.
I guess, besides the Möbius visual I got after finishing 'The Real Life of SK', I should also admit that Nabokov made it impossible to avoid chess images. Chess is a common theme in many of his novels (the Defense; King, Queen, Knave, etc.), but some novels are just shaded with opaque chess shadows, while others (like this one) seem to have every piece and the board thrown in. This novel kinda reminded me of a ruleless game of chess I played with my older brother (who died suddenly four years ago) when I was young. The pieces didn't behave (at least my Black pieces didn't behave) and at one point I drove my brother absolutely nuts because after nearly clearing the board we somehow managed to be left with just his White King and my Black King. I insisted we play till the game was over, but we just circled the board. I wouldn't let the fake game end in a draw, but the set up was impossible so I just chased him around and around and around the board. That fake game felt a lot like 'the Real Life of Sebastian Knight', just not nearly as literary and didn't end with both frustrated kings jammed up my nose.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Music Man
- 09-08-13
A minor work, not well served
I chose this book because it was recommended by a musician I admire. It is Nabokov's twelfth novel but the first book he wrote in English, and as always his command of the language is breathtaking. But I was very disappointed by "Sebastian Knight," which seems to be a kind of philosophical meditation on identity, creativity, family, mortality, the very nature of biography itself. Big issues, but here presented in a navel-gazing modality that eluded me almost entirely. The book is so turned into itself that there seems to be no entry-point for the reader. I see "Sebastian Knight" as a study for "Pale Fire," which handles the "literary biography with unreliable narrator" with far greater interest and drama--and much more interesting characters.
Nabokov's work is given a singularly inept reading by Luke Daniels. The tone of his narrative completely misses the color and rhythm of the writing which is the book's great strength. It's a bit like seeing Chekkov acted by, say, John Ritter. The atmosphere is wrong. To make matters worse, Mr. Daniels makes an embarrassing mess of all the French words in the book--of which there are a fair amount. "Tant mieux" comes out as "toned mew." Tone-deaf is more like it.
I found a copy of "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight" on line and started to read some of the passages I had just listened to. Though I doubt I'll ever truly love this novel, I did feel that I had missed its true colors because of Daniels. My advice: go for the print version this time. Much as I believe in audiobooks, this offering did a big disservice to Nabokov.
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- Richard Ferrie
- 09-27-13
A disappointment
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
A depressingly slight effort from a gifted author.
What could Vladimir Nabokov have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Flesh it out with fervor, passion, humanity.
What didn’t you like about Luke Daniels’s performance?
Daniels did his best.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
As always with VN there are sentences that sing.
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1 person found this helpful