The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (Penguin Modern Classics) by Vladimir Nabokov Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (Penguin Modern Classics)
Book Review: Master of language
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first try with Nabokov, and I must say that I was almost overwhelmed by his masterful and playful use of the English language. A fun little detective story rests atop a rather dark investigation into the nature of human identity. In fact, there are many layers of meaning mixed up with so many cruel jests in this book, that often I found myself passing them by, promising aloud that I would read the book many more times. Recommended for all serious readers.Book Review: A subtle, funny, puzzling book, wonderfully written.
Summary: 5 Stars
I believe the key to this novel is the fact that the narrator is a better writer than Sebastian Knight. Samples of Knight's work appear specifically to underline this: they are clever enough to substantiate Knight as a published author, and to make plausible the admiration of his humble younger brother, but not up to the standard that brother himself sets.I further believe that the book we read is meant to have been written by the narrator, not, as is so often the case, simply seen and reported in the first person. This makes the quality of the writing a real issue.
I don't claim to fully understand all the implications of this, but I think this is the departing point.
Lots of humor. Very satisfying read.
Book Review: The Best Book That I ever Had Met
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first book I chanced to meet Nabokov. He wrote this book when he was 38 and none belived that this could make a grade on literature. But like Proust, he became a famous writer and as the Remembrance to the Things Past, to The Real Life of Sebastian Knight . I think this book was written with very profound thought after reading the Remembrance to the Things Past. And he seemed to overcomed the REAL DILEMA of Time( or deconstruct) and Liturature in his own way that doesn't be showed in RtTP.Book Review: On the contrary...
Summary: 4 Stars
The reviewer from Seoul unfortunately has fallen pray to Nabokov's tricks. The femme fatale, the quest for a brother, the mysterious stranger who helps V., V.'s apologies for his poor writing (which I suspect few could match) are all quite deliberately satirical. Anyone who reads the novel, believing everything they are told, will miss a lot. The reader should especially keep an eye out for the wonderful interaction between life and text. This is probably one of Nabokov's "simpler" novels in the sense that most of the tricks are visible as tricks, even if one cannot at first identify them. A fine novel, even if it does not match Nabokov's later English works.
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