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Charles Kinbote
Charles Kinbote is the unreliable narrator in Vladimir Nabokov's novel ''Pale Fire''. Academic work Kinbote appears to be the scholarly author of the Foreword, Commentary and Index surrounding the text of the late John Shade's poem "Pale Fire", which together form the text of Nabokov's novel. In the course of initially academic but increasingly deranged annotations to Shade's text, Kinbote's writing reveals a comic melange of narcissism and megalomania: he believes himself to be a royal figure, the exiled king of Zembla and the real target of the gunman who has in fact murdered Shade. Using the scholarly apparatus of reference and commentary, Kinbote first intertwines his own story with the commentary on Shade's poem, then allows the poem to slide into the background and his perhaps delusional world to move into the spotlight; as Kinbote had hoped John Shade would produce a poem about Zembla's exiled king, this shift provides some satisfaction for Kinbote. Zembla Kinbote's "dista ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unreliable Narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in ''The Rhetoric of Fiction''. While unreliable narrators are almost by definition first-person narrators, arguments have been made for the existence of unreliable second- and third-person narrators, especially within the context of film and television, and sometimes also in literature. Sometimes the narrator's unreliability is made immediately evident. For instance, a story may open with the narrator making a plainly false or delusional claim or admitting to being severely mentally ill, or the story itself may have a frame in which the narrator appears as a character, with clues to the character's unreliability. A more dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the story's end. In some cases, the reader discovers that in the foregoing narrative, the narrator h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lolita
''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze, whom he kidnaps and sexually abuses after becoming her stepfather. "Lolita", the Spanish nickname for Dolores, is what he calls her privately. The novel was originally written in English and first published in Paris in 1955 by Olympia Press. The novel has been twice adapted into film: first by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and later by Adrian Lyne in 1997. It has also been adapted several times for the stage and has been the subject of two operas, two ballets, and an acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful, Broadway musical. It has been included in many lists of best books, such as '' Time'' List of the 100 Best Novels, '' Le Monde'' 100 Books of the Century, Bokklubben World Library, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional Kings
This is a list of fictional monarchs – characters who appear in fiction as the monarchs (kings, queens, emperors, empresses, etc.) of real-life countries. They are listed by country, then according to the production or story in which they appeared. A Austria-Hungary '' The Illusionist'' * Crown Prince Leopold is the powerful and influential heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 2006 film ''The Illusionist'', although his father, the Emperor, is the actual reigning monarch. '' A Scandal in Bohemia'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle * Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein - The Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and the hereditary King of Bohemia, he approaches Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson about the retrieval of letters and photographs confirming a liaison with Irene Adler in order to secure his engagement to Clotilde Lothma Von Saxe-Meiningen, a young Scandinavian princess. (The story fictionally assumes that Bohemia was ruled by its own Habsburg branch, rath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jose Chung's From Outer Space
"Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''" is the 20th episode of the third season of the science fiction television series ''The X-Files''. The episode first aired in the United States on April 12, 1996, on Fox. It was written by Darin Morgan and directed by Rob Bowman. "Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.5, being watched by 16.08 million people in its initial broadcast, and also received praise from critics. The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder and Scully hear, and promptly investigate, a story about an alien abduction of two teenagers. Each witness provides a different version of the same facts. Within the episode, a thriller novelist, Jose Chung, writes a book about the incident. The episode is a stand-alone episode of ''The X-Files''. While it follows the normal Monster of the Week pattern of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who investigate X-files unit, X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. The original television series aired from September 1993 to May 2002, on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The program spanned List of The X-Files episodes, nine seasons, with 202 episodes. A short The X-Files (season 10), tenth season consisting of six episodes ran from January to February 2016. Following the ratings success of this revival (television), revival, ''The X-Files'' returned for an The X-Files (season 11), eleventh season of ten episodes, which ran from January to March 2018. In addition to the television series, two feature films have been release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bend Sinister (novel)
''Bend Sinister'' is a dystopian novel written by Vladimir Nabokov during the years 1945 and 1946, and published by Henry Holt and Company in 1947. It was Nabokov's eleventh novel and his second written in English. Title In heraldry, a standard " bend" is a diagonal band from the upper dexter to the lower sinister (that is, from the upper right of the coat of arms' bearer to his lower left) and a "bend sinister" is its left-handed reverse. To a viewer facing the shield the appearances will be reversed, \ and / respectively. In a 1963 edition of the book, Nabokov explains that "this choice of a title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life." In the novel, Nabokov often uses word-play concerning leftward (or "sinister") movements. Plot summary This book takes place in a fictitious European city known as Padukgrad, where a government arises following the rise of a philosophy known as "Ekwilism", whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laughter In The Dark (novel)
''Laughter in the Dark'' (Original Russian title: Ка́мера обску́ра, ''Camera obscura'') is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and serialised in ''Sovremennye zapiski'' in 1932. The first English translation, ''Camera Obscura'', was made by Winifred Roy and published in London in 1936 by Johnathan Long, the paperback imprint of Hutchinson Publishing, with the author credited as Vladimir Nabokoff-Sirin. Nabokov was so displeased by the translation's quality that he undertook his own, which was published in 1938 under the now common name, ''Laughter in the Dark''. It is sometimes mistakenly assumed that he was not fond of the book, yet in fact it was based on very personal breakthroughs in his life. The book deals with the affection of a middle-aged man for an underaged girl, resulting in a mutually parasitic relationship. In 1955, Nabokov used this theme again with '' Lolita'' to a much differently developed effect. Characters The characters were given different ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King, Queen, Knave
''King, Queen, Knave'' was the second novel written by Vladimir Nabokov (under his pen name V. Sirin) while living in Berlin and sojourning at resorts in the Baltic. Written in the years 1927–8, it was published as ''Король, дама, валет (Korol', dama, valet)'' in Russian in October 1928 and then translated into German by Siegfried von Vegesack as ''König, Dame, Bube: ein Spiel mit dem Schicksal''. Forty years later the novel was translated into English by Nabokov's son Dmitri, with significant changes made by the author. A film adaptation only loosely based on the novel followed in 1972. Plot summary Franz Bubendorf, a young man from a small provincial town, is sent away from home to work in the Berlin department store of his well-to-do "uncle" (actually, his mother's cousin), Kurt Dreyer. On the train ride to Berlin, Franz is seated without realising in the same compartment with Dreyer and Dreyer's young wife, Martha, neither of whom Franz had met. He is imm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Despair (novel)
''Despair'' (russian: Отчаяние, or ') is the seventh novel by Vladimir Nabokov, originally published in Russian, serially in the politicized literary journal ''Sovremennye zapiski'' during 1934. It was then published as a book in 1936, and translated to English by the author in 1937. Most copies of the 1937 English edition were destroyed by German bombs during World War II; only a few copies remain. Nabokov published a second English translation in 1965; this is now the only English translation in print. Plot summary The narrator and protagonist of the story, Hermann Karlovich, a Russian of German descent and owner of a chocolate factory, meets a homeless man in the city of Prague, who he believes is his doppelgänger. Even though Felix, the supposed doppelgänger, is seemingly unaware of their resemblance, Hermann insists that their likeness is most striking. Hermann is married to Lydia, a sometimes silly and forgetful wife (according to Hermann) who has a cousin named ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glory (Nabokov Novel)
''Glory'' (russian: Подвиг) is a Russian novel written by Vladimir Nabokov between 1930 and 1932 and first published in Paris. The novel has been seen by some critics as a kind of fictional dress-run-through of the author's famous memoir ''Speak, Memory''. Its Swiss-Russian hero, Martin Edelweiss, shares a number of experiences and sensations with his creator: goal-tending at Cambridge University, Cambridge fireplaces, English morning weather, a passion for rail travel. It is, however, the story of an émigré family's escape from Russia, a young man's education in England, and his (perhaps) disastrous return to the nation of his birth—the "feat" of the novel's Russian title. Translation The text was translated by the author's son, Dmitri Nabokov, with revisions by the author, and published in English in 1971. The Russian title, ''Podvig'', also translates as "feat" or "exploit." Its working title was ''Romanticheskiy vek'' (The Romantic Age), as Nabokov indicates in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Defense
''The Defense'' is the third novel written by Vladimir Nabokov after he had emigrated to Berlin. It was published in 1930. Publication The novel appeared first under Nabokov's pen name V. Sirin in the Russian emigre quarterly ''Sovremennye zapiski'' and was thereafter published by the emigre publishing house Slovo as "Защита Лужина" (''The Luzhin Defense'') in Berlin. More than three decades later the novel was translated into English by Michael Scammell in collaboration with Nabokov and appeared in 1964. In the foreword to the English edition Nabokov states that he wrote ''The Defense'' in 1929 while he vacationed in Le Boulou ("hunting butterflies") and then finished it in Berlin. He links the events in the central chapters to moves as encountered in chess problems. Plot summary The plot concerns the title character, Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin. As a boy, he is considered unattractive, withdrawn, and an object of ridicule by his classmates. One day, when a guest com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial support of Charles Scribner, as a printing press to serve the Princeton community in 1905. Its distinctive building was constructed in 1911 on William Street in Princeton. Its first book was a new 1912 edition of John Witherspoon's ''Lectures on Moral Philosophy.'' History Princeton University Press was founded in 1905 by a recent Princeton graduate, Whitney Darrow, with financial support from another Princetonian, Charles Scribner II. Darrow and Scribner purchased the equipment and assumed the operations of two already existing local publishers, that of the ''Princeton Alumni Weekly'' and the Princeton Press. The new press printed both local newspapers, university documents, ''The Daily Princetonian'', and later added book publishing to it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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