Invitation to a Beheading

Humbert Humbert tells the story of his obsession with twelve-year-old Dolores Haze. Published in 1955, this novel about desire, self-deception, and the abuse of innocence remains one of the most debated works in English literature.

Vladimir Nabokov

A 999-line poem by a dead poet, hijacked by his neighbor's delusional commentary. Pale Fire is part mystery, part literary puzzle, and one of the most inventive novels of the 20th century.

Vladimir Nabokov

Professor Timofey Pnin is a Russian emigre teaching at an American college in the 1950s. Funny and heartbreaking in equal measure, this is Nabokov's most human and warmly comic novel.

Vladimir Nabokov

Nabokov's memoir covers his childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia, his youth in Europe, and his family's exile. Often called one of the finest autobiographies ever written, it reads more like a novel than a life story.

Vladimir Nabokov

A young Russian writer in 1920s Berlin discovers his voice while falling in love. The last and longest of Nabokov's Russian-language novels, widely considered the peak of his early career.

Vladimir Nabokov