About this title: 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 ...
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. 0679725318 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Edition: First edition thus
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books; Vintage International Ser., New York
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679725312ISBN:0679725318
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 223 pp.; 21 cm. First published, 1959. Tight, clean copy. Browning. Stated "First Vintage International Edition, September 1989. " "Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for 'gnostical turpitude, ' an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam
Date Published: 1959
Description: Good. Dust jacket is very worn, torn and discolored, hardcover has slight discoloration, pages in very good condition-Very Clean Copy-Over 500, 000 Internet Orders Filled. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679725312ISBN:0679725318
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 223 p. Vintage International (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Capricorn Books, New York
Date Published: 1965
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. clean text, tight binding, cheap copy! Text in English, Russian. 223 p. 21 cm. "A Capricorn Giant, 255.". Capricorn Books Edition, 1965. Translation of Priglashenie na kazn'. read more
Description: Very good. 1989 Vintage Press Reprint Softcover(Trade PB) Edition. Slight wear to (different)cover, text clean with strong binding. Ships Fast! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Capricorn
Date Published: 1965
Description: Very Good. This is a very nice paperback copy. Binding is tight and square. No names, no marks, no stickers. Text is clean and bright. Careful packaging and fast shipping. We recommend PRIORITY MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679725312ISBN:0679725318
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 1989-09-01
ISBN-13:9780679725312ISBN:0679725318
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780679725312. read more
Edition: First edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
Date Published: 1959
Description: Very good-condition. Good+ condition (DJ) Octavo (8vo). 223 pages of text. Hardcover binding with moderate soiling. Unclipped dustjacket is heavily sunned on spine, with several small chips and tears, and a clean incision to front flap; protected in archival mylar. Translated by Dmitri Nabokov. Minor spotting to endpapers. Text is clean. read more
Description: Good; Collectible. 1959 Putnam hard cover-1st edition-wear to duat jacket (now in mylar cover) some wear to cover-minor staining to page edge-otherwise binding strong contents clean-enjoy. read more
"It was an interesting read, although the language was difficult to parse at points.
The Kafkaesque early 20th century discourse on insanity was interesting, but not earth shattering, and I believe that the story was injured by translation.
Cincinatus C.is gaoled alone in an empty prison with insane bureaucratic rules for the crime of simply being himself, and being more solid and real than other people. A bastard born to an unknown but allegedly real father, married to a pathologically cuckolding wife, and friend only to a 12 year old girl, Cincinatus is not a likely candidate for execution, and yet he waits to find out the exact time and place of his beheading.
Read in ORD, waiting for flight home from GenCon2009."
"John Updike said, "Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." I couldn't agree more.
Every phrase is a work of art, every word drips with melancholy, with longing and passion. This book is truly phenomenal. That being said, I have to acknowledge, there are many people who won't like it, might even hate it. In Nabokov's world: nothing's real, everything's a dream, and reality is only what you make it. Our hero, Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death for an undefined crime. He lives in an absurd world where nothing's what it seems. Everyone ought to read this book, if only to marvel at Nabokov's writing...
"It is strange that I should have sought salvation. Just like a man grieving because he has recently lost in his dreams some thing that he had never had in reality, or hoping that tomorrow he would dream that he found it again. That is how mathematics is created; it has its fatal flaw. I have discovered it. I have discovered the little crack in life, where it broke off, where it had once been soldered to something else, something geniunely alive, important and vast..."
This book should be read when you're feeling contemplative or are simply in the mood to feel beyond yourself... A beautiful, stunning work of art."
"This is a truly fantastic book. I know this is a bold statement, but I think it should be regarded as a classic!
Invitation to a Beheading is the story of the imprisonment of Cinncinatus, a man who has been sentenced to death for a crime no one will actually mention. His time in prison devolves into a dream-like series of bizarre events as he struggles to comes to terms with the end of his life. In the end, the book is a powerful comment on submission and acceptance. I would recommend this novel to anyone."
"This book wasn't my favorite Nabokov so far and I am glad I read it after "Lolita" and "Laughter in the Dark". This one was a bit different but had most elements I love about Nabokov-namely, his ability to trasport the reader to the scene. I feel like I can smell, hear, and flinch in his books. I have been seriously reading most of my life but coming across Vladimir Nabokov has been exciting. It is his way of describing something, and not on every page or paragraph, but a special description that is like an exquisite desert after a wonderful meal. Here's some examples:
"....just then then the door opened and the gloomy, lanky, librarian appeared with a stack of books under his arm. A woolen scarf was wound round his throat. Without saying hello to anyone he dumped the books on the cot, and for a moment stereometric apparitions of those same books, composed of dust, hung above them in the air, they hung, vibrated, and dispersed."
Here on the obsession with his ever unknown date of beheading.
"Soon, I think, I shall evolve a third eye on the back of my neck, between my brittle vertebrae: a mad eye, wide open, with a dilating pupil and pink venation on the glossy ball."
Lastly, a description of a character:
"How they lumbered in ! Marthe's aged father, with his huge bald head, and bags under his eyes, and the rubbery tap of his black cane..."
After the last I could swear Marthe's father was standing in my room..I know it because I heard the "rubbery tap of his black cane down my hallway!! Really, Nabokov is my absolute favorite writer. He is thoroughly modern but retains the feelings of classic literature."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
