43. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, with a frontispiece portrait of the author by Andrew Hoyem, 1994.
Considered the highest artistic achievement of Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962)
was written in a complex form that satirizes academic literary analysis
and has two fictitious authors: a mad professor named Charles Kinbote
and a poet named John Shade. The poem Pale Fire by Shade, of 999
lines, is explicated in a commentary by Kinbote, and, when read together,
the story of the poet and his family are merged with the fantastical lives
of his critic, perhaps an exiled king and perhaps an assassin. Readers of
the novel will be intrigued by its puzzles, amused by its wild humor, moved
by its profundity, and struck by its beauty and brilliance. We solved by
internal evidence one of the mysteries of the book by establishing for the
first time the lineation of the poem so that the small volume conforms
to the set of index cards described as its manuscript in the novel.
EDITION & PRICE
Format: 10-7/8 by 6-7/8 inches, 288 pages. The types are Monotype Fridericus and handset Torino. The paper is English mouldmade Somerset. A second volume, providing a second copy of the poem Pale Fire for reference, is in the format of the ostensible manuscript, 4 by 6 inches, 84 pages, with the same type and paper. Both volumes are bound in full purple cloth, with inset gold cloth disks for gold titling, and are enclosed in a gold cloth slipcase. Edition of 200 copies, $600.00. Out of print.
Title page with portrait of author as "Shade".
"Index card" pages of poem.
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Artist, Author, Title, or KeywordEdition: The format is 10-7/8 by 6-7/8 inches, 288 pages; a second volume is 4 by 6 inches, 84 pages. Both bound in full purple cloth, in slipcase. The edition is limited to 200 copies for sale. Price: $600. Out of print.