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The Defense

By Vladimir Nabokov
Penguin Classics
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Brief Description
The Defense is Vladimir Nabokov's early novel about a chess-playing genius, reissued in Modern Classics as part of the Nabokov relaunch. This dazzling story features the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The Defense is Vladimir Nabokov's early novel about a chess-playing genius, reissued in Modern Classics as part of the Nabokov relaunch.

This dazzling story features the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of International Grandmaster, Luzhin develops a lyrical passion for chess that renders the real world a phantom.

As he confronts the fiery, swift-swooping Italian Grandmaster Turati, he brings into play his carefully devised defence. Making masterly use of metaphor and imagery, The Defense is the book that, of his early works, Nabokov felt "contains and diffuses the greatest warmth".

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241720486

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 30 January 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Michael Scammell

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 11.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 149g

Pages: 192

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Penguin Classics: General Fiction Vladimir Nabokov

About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov (Author) Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), born in St Petersburg, exiled in Cambridge, Berlin, and Paris, became the greatest Russian writer of the first half of the twentieth century. Fleeing to the US with his family in 1940, he then became the greatest writer in English of the second half of the century, and even 'God's own novelist' (William Deresiewicz). He lived in Europe from 1959 onwards, and died in Montreux, Switzerland. All his major works - novels, stories, an autobiography, poems, plays, lectures, essays and reviews - are published in Penguin Modern Classics.

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