the True Life of Sebastian Knight is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1940 and which inaugurates the anglophone career of writer of the author.

Context

Nabokov wrote this novel with London in 1940. It lived there doubly in exile since it had already fled the Russian Révolution in 1917 and fled from now on the rise of the Nazisme in Germany, where it lived previously.

The novel will be published only in 1941 with the the United States, where Nabokov will spend the next years of its life.

It is the first time that Nabokov publishes a text in English. Hitherto, he wrote in his Russian maternal. However, it should be recalled that Nabokov learned the French and English as of his more young age.

Style

The novel is written by an emigrated Russian bench in France, just like the author. The narrator, who is the brother of known as Sebastian Knight, is not supposed being an arts person. These two facts are supposed to excuse the " faible" English level of the novel.

This novel can be regarded as a genuine proclamation of the frame of mind of Nabokov. Throughout the novel, the stereotypes of the literary world are turned in derision. The arts persons " purs" , the authors (or alleged such), their admirors, the editors, their other collaborators, all are turned into ridiculous by the eyes of a simple man who forever côtoyé this medium.

Nabokov thus shows in its novel what he refuses to do in the writing: to use stereotypes, to falsify the emotions, to play of claim.

In the two final chapters however, Nabokov shows with brilliance what he thinks of being good literature: lived the, concrete one, and a true emotion which will leave the reader in agitation at the any end of the book. After having shown what one did not have to do, the author thus leaves a masterly lesson of literature.

To note: the narrator does not give his name. But Sebastian calls it " V… " and it is known that it does not bear the same name that him (they are half-brothers). This implies that the history would be true, a recurring play of Vladimir Nabokov.

The destinies of Sebastian and his/her brother are in addition close to that of Nabokov itself (exile, studies, career…)

History

Sebastian Knight, known writer, have just died prematurely of disease. His/her half-brother realizes to this occasion that he only knew it too badly and decides to inquire into him to write his biography. It is the result of its work which we will read.

Sebastian and the narrator were born from the same father in Russia, but had all to flee the revolution to settle in France. Sebastian will leave to study with London and consequently the two brothers will cross only in an episodical way.

The narrator will discover with the length of his investigation the life of student and the literary beginnings of his brother. He will meet his " secrétaire" , Mr. Goodman, a perfect imbecile who is a anti-model of Sebastian. He will also seek to find the woman who shared her life a long time. This redécouverte of his/her own brother, it will live it with much humor and as much amazement than of irony.

At the end, it will reveal why it launched out in this search.

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