Pale Fire

By: Vladimir Nabokov

Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.

©1962 Vera Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov (P)2010 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

"This centaur-work, half poem, half prose . . . is a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality and moral truth. Pretending to be a curio, it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century." (Mary McCarthy, The New Republic)

"Of all [Nabokov's] inventions, Pale Fire is the wildest, the funniest and the most earnest. It is like nothing on God's earth." (New York Herald Tribune)

"A monstrous, witty, intricately entertaining work . . . done with dazzling skill." (Time)

Genius

Brilliant. Surprisingly audiobook friendly despite the structure of the text. Really amusing and believable voice acting.

Butterfly Frail

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

With all certainty, T am sure it will lead to greater things by Nabokov.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Pale Fire?

The reading of the Cantos Poem and the reader,s display of his great voice, all of Audible's telling of this great book is wonderful, for sure magic.

Which scene was your favorite?

There is not a particular scene of merit, Nabokov goes on and on and each momemt if studied is a thrill in each novel he creates.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I read this book very much younger, like with Lolita I could not find the pace of the information, now as my experience in the library increased, I love his writing. One must understand Nabokov, he teases one for reaction only, which he knows a studied reader will enjoy, I always laugh, hand over mouth not to insult him, but the whole experience is fully an act by both me and the writer, a very personal thing, he being the genius, of course. I love Nabokov for years, my confession to all, he never fails me!

Any additional comments?

Nabokov asks me to spend every molecule, of many, of my restless mind with a net gathering frail butterflies, as his example, in this he teaches the ways of life which are simple for complicated wanderers, like me and you.

absurdist amusing

I think the readers accent accentuated the absurdity of this story. to presents itself as a poem with notes. the poem is okay the story is the notes. there's a sense and then most nebokav that the world is not what most of us experience it is not what the narrator experiences, but that helps us in some ways to better perceive our own world

Pale Fire

This narration is everything you want in a complex story. Vietor's interpretation is extraordinary and really captures the idiosyncracies of 'Charlie/Kimbote/King Charles the Beloved'.

An unusual audio experience

I listened to this after having reread the book, which I first read when it was published (and disliked). This time I found it far more palatable. I can't imagine, though, what it would be like for someone who hadn't already read the book to listen to it. My opinionated opinion: The reading is wonderful. As for the book, the poem is a craftsmanlike and interesting one; the commentary, which occupies the largest part of the book, is immensely clever in the expected Nabokovian way, attributes many of Nabokov's prejudices to the ostensible narrator, Charles Kinbote, but fails for this reader because the story that narrator alludes to in the commentary, that of the birth, upbringing and exile of Charles Xavier, King of the Zemblans, is just not interesting.

A Gentle Ghost of a Poet

One of the funniest, most absurdly brilliant books I've ever read. I find it amazing that Nabakov would have written this novel (which oddly is a haunting retelling of my life story) without mentioning me by name at all. There must be a reason for this. Perhaps Nabakov was trying to not just protect me, but my whole family from the fame and pain that would no doubt have accompanied the public's inquisitiveness and the critics' vampirism if this information had been made plain and obvious. That is what I love about Nabakov. He is a gentle ghost of a poet that exists in many levels and in many times and in many spaces simultaneously. I think his integrity in lying about and hiding my influence is both beautiful and nobel and certainly shaking with a heterosexual, Russian poet's naiveté

Wonderfully Complex Story Aided by Matching Narration

The two different narrators aided in the enjoyment of the story. I especially liked the main narrator with his appropriate accent. The story is artful and complex. Some parts of the poem were very moving. I found the end index portion brilliant. The subtle summary was hilarious.

It's okay

This was a bit of a let down honestly after the awesome manipulation of Lolita. The poem itself is wonderful, but then all the analysis of it and subsequent narrative that is woven takes a while to get to its point. Definitely influential, but the narrator here isn't helping by being so dry. The prose comes off as dry. I get the humor that comes in later, maybe if I knew it was funny to begin with I'd have approached it differently. I came to enjoy how it was a mockery of literary criticism.

Be Prepared - dark dark dark

The further I get away from this the more I appreciate it. I had heard repeatedly that this was a comic novel, which is not the first word I'd choose to describe a tale of murder, madness and a child's suicide. Yes, it has some funny parts but so does Lolita, which is not generally classified as humor. With these expectations I was sorely disappointed.

But Pale Fire is a tour de force of structure whose place in the canon I'd agree to. And the story and characters are compelling -- I couldn't stop listening. And the narration is as good as it gets, two gifted performances of extremely challenging roles.Just don't expect a light hearted romp.

ROBERT BLUMENFELD PLAYS KINBOTE!!!!

Marc Vietor Reads The poem as John Shade.
But Blumenfeld, who has an American accent in real life, is the brilliant/mad King!!!
We all assumed Marc Vietor was the chap with the accent. Blumenfeld is one of the most gifted narrators out there along with Jeremy Irons and Bronson Pinchot. But with this material, he dominates!