Written in Berlin in 1934, Invitation to a Beheading contains all the surprise, excitement and magical intensity of a work created in two brief weeks of sustained inspiration. It takes us into the fantastic prison-world of Cincinnatus, a man condemned to death and spending his last days in prison not quite knowing when the end will come. Nabokov described the book as 'a violin in a void. The worldling will deem it a trick. Old men will hurriedly turn from it to regional romances and the lives of public figures ... The evil ...
Read More
Written in Berlin in 1934, Invitation to a Beheading contains all the surprise, excitement and magical intensity of a work created in two brief weeks of sustained inspiration. It takes us into the fantastic prison-world of Cincinnatus, a man condemned to death and spending his last days in prison not quite knowing when the end will come. Nabokov described the book as 'a violin in a void. The worldling will deem it a trick. Old men will hurriedly turn from it to regional romances and the lives of public figures ... The evil-minded will perceive in little Emmie a sister of little Lolita ... But I know a few readers who will jump up, ruffling their hair'.
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Pages are clean! The dust jacket is missing. The front text block edge is deckled Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. First edition copy. Collectible-Good. Good dust jacket. Dust jacket and endpapers soiled. Acquisition information on back free endpage. (Russian fiction, allegories, death row inmates)
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. First Edition, First Printing. Published by Putnam, 1959. Octavo. Red cloth over patterned boards stamped in gold with yellow endpapers. Book is very good with no writing or names. Sharp corners and spine straight. Binding tight and pages crisp. Price-clipped dust jacket is very good with shelf wear, edge wear, and small nicks. Book placed in custom acetate protector. A very good copy of this classic novel by Vladimir Nabokov. 223 pages. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions or if you would like a photo. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Southampton, New York. We Buy Books! Individual titles, libraries, collections. Message us if you have books to sell!
While in the middle of a long, difficult non-fiction study by the sociologist of religion Robert Bellah, I took time away to read a novel. The book I read, Nabokov's "Invitation to a Beheading" proved shorter but as thoughtful and if anything more obscure than Bellah's outstanding work. Nabokov (1899 -- 1979) wrote "Invitation to a Beheading" in Russian early in his career in 1935, several years before moving to the United States.
Nabokov's novel tells the story of a young man of 30, Cincinnatus C. Allusions may be important. Cincinnatus was a Roman statesman who defeated an invasion and then returned to his farm, refusing an offer of kingship. George Washington sometimes is called the American Cincinnatus. There are other important allusions in Nabokov's novel, including one to Socrates. Cincinnatus C. is arrested and sentenced to death by beheading for the strange, unexplained crime of "gnostic turpitude." Most of the novel is set in prison over a period of weeks while Cincinnatus awaits execution.
The reader gradually learns about Cincinnatus through his own words and those of the narrator which tend to merge together. The reader also learns of Cincinnatus' life in the jail surrounded by shadowy figures including the guard, the prison director, the director's daughter, a sole fellow-prisoner, a librarian, and other characters. Cincinnatus had led a lonely, frustrated life as a would-be writer. He was raised as an orphan, cuckolded repeatedly by his wife, and always felt himself a loner, misunderstood and neglected.
While in prison, Cincinnatus is obsessed with finding out the day of his execution. He wants to put his thoughts to paper, but he says he is unwilling to make the effort if his work is interrupted by his beheading. Part of the book consists of bizarre, surrealistic events during the incarceration while parts consist of Cincinnatus'/the narrator's brilliant full observations and passionate writing. There are long, beautiful if ranting passages of his feelings and observations which mark an astonishing writer.
The novel provokes thought and bears multiple interpretations. Various political interpretations might be offered focusing broadly on the individual and his relationship to an allegedly cruel, totalitarian, or shallow society. Such themes have become trite and commonplace and don't do justice to this book. I found the book more internalized and probably dream-like. Cincinnatus speaks of himself throughout as having a "double" and many of his strongest and longest reflections in the book are about the relationship between reality and dreams. The city in which the story is set and the characters bear little resemblance to any society regardless of how barbaric. To me the story is about an individual coming to terms with his own mortality and with his own creativity -- his need to be an artist and express himself even though most other people will fail to understand -- and setting it out in a story. In the dreamlike, unreal sequences of the story, Cincinnatus comes to independence and to a sense of freedom in senseless circumstances.
The book by Robert Bellah mentioned at the outset of this review helped prepare me for "Invitation to a Beheading". A major theme of that book was the importance of play to human life rather than mere work to earn a living. Art and writing are a form of "serious play" which illuminate one's life. Nabokov's book is playful in tone and, like play, should not be pushed but should be enjoyed. I found this book highly suggestive about the nature of freedom and of a creative life.