Summary
Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire
Pale Fire is widely considered Nabokov's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels ever written, as it combines the elements of a crime story, a work of unbridled imagination, a questioning of the very nature of the novel, and superb comedy. As an ingeniously designed parody of the detective genre, full of wordplay and hidden meanings, *Blijeda Vatra* offers plenty of literary pleasures. The novel opens with a poem of 999 lines written by the literary genius John Shade shortly before his death. The poem is accompanied by a foreword and commentary by the deranged scholar Charles Kinbote – Shade's colleague, neighbor and supposed friend – who interprets the lyrics as a reflection of his own phantasmagoric experiences. It gradually becomes clear that Kinbote's madness is a radical expression of what every reader does: projecting his own experience into a literary work. Ingeniously conceived and endlessly inventive, Nabokov's novel achieves what is truly rare in literature – the perfect balance of tragedy and comedy.
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