"The Defense" (1929) is the crowning achievement of Vladimir Nabokov's 1920s work, his first major creative success, which brought him fame as the best young writer of the Russian emigration. Demonstrating, in the words of Gleb Struve, a "magical mastery of theme and material," Nabokov opened a bright new chapter in Russian literature with this novel. The brilliant chess player Alexander Luzhin, who lives more in the world of his abstract and rigorous art than in real-life Berlin, discovers what could be called the combinatorial essence of existence. Unsuccessfully attempting to decipher the "moves of fate" and interrupt their ominous repetition, he ceases to understand where the game ends and life itself begins, against the relentless circumstances of which he is defenseless.
"The Defense" contains many layers, each of which explores in detail one of the themes that would subsequently become key to Nabokov's body of work. Here we find the theme of duality, the interplay between the real and fictional worlds, and the collision of art with life, of genius with the mundane. For the protagonist, the promising Grandmaster Luzhin, obsessed with chess, life becomes a match on a chessboard—a match in which it is impossible to win, but in which one can successfully defend. Nabokov's impeccable style, gripping plot, and subtle psychological insight instantly turned the young author into one of the central figures of the Russian diaspora.
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Pages: 288 (typographic). Hardcover
Dimensions: 270x210x13 mm
