Invitation to a Beheading

Name: Invitation to a Beheading
Rating: 3.8333333333333335 (6 reviews)
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
ISBN: 9780140100402

by Vladimir Nabokov

3.8

(6 ratings)

192 pages1990Penguin ClassicsISBN 9780140100402

fiction dystopian fantasy science fiction

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About this book

Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude." an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers. an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws. who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed. he simply wills his executioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.

Publication Details

Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 1990
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9780140100402
Language: en

About Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков; 23 April [O.S. 10 April] 1899c – 2 July 1977) was a multilingual Russian-American novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist. He also made contributions to entomology and had an interest in chess problems. Nabokov's *Lolita* (1955) is frequently cited as among his most important novels and is his most widely known, exhibiting the love of intricate word play and synesthetic detail that characterised all his works. The novel was ranked at #4 in the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels. *Pale Fire* (1962) was ranked at #53 on the same list. His memoir entitled *Speak, Memory* was listed #8 on the Modern Library nonfiction list. ([Source][1].) [1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov