Invitation to a Beheading

Vladimir Nabokov

Penguin Books Limited, Mar 1, 2012 - Fiction - 192 pages

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’.

About the author

Vladimir Nabokov was born in St Petersburg in 1899, but he left Russia when the Bolsheviks seized power. His family moved to England for a brief spell and finally settled in Berlin. His first novel in English was The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, published in 1941. His other books include Ada, Laughter in the Dark, Details of a Sunset and Lolita, his best-known novel. Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland in 1977.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Invitation to a Beheading; Penguin Modern Classics
• Author: Vladimir Nabokov
• Translated by: Dmitri Nabokov
• Publisher: Penguin Books Limited, 2012
• ISBN: 0141913800, 9780141913803
• Length: 192 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Religious; Religion / Gnosticism