The Luzhin Defense: A Hidden Treasure

[ktm5124]

I just wrapped up The Luzhin Defense today, one of Nabokov's Russian-language novels. Fortunately for us, he took the trouble to translate this novel into English himself, so we are afforded another opportunity to read his scintillating prose.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel - it might not be staggering like Lolita, but it is excellent - and relished the familiar Nabokov sense of humor: the pathetic protagonist, the surrounding characters who cannot understand him, the lines of expostulation that stick out in your head. It's interesting how in this novel there is very little dialogue, and yet through page-long paragraphs and pages without dialogue Nabokov is able to sustain an engrossing narrative.

The weird thing about this novel, though, is that it is not listed under the bibliography that normally prefaces a work by Nabokov. In my copy of Lolita, for instance, there is a list of Nabokov's other novels (both Russian- and English-language) and The Luzhin Defense is not mentioned. In my copies of Pale Fire and Pnin it is the same story. Why is The Luzhin Defense not listed among his other works? Has anyone else heard or read of this novel? (I would not have chanced upon it myself had my friend not recommended it to me from his class on Nabokov.)

[Bastable]

I'm familiar with it - haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet however. My copies of Nabokov don't list any of his other books at the front so i wouldn't be able to help you there. I have also heard of it being published simply as "The Defence", if that name is listed at all?

But it being a lesser known work of an author known only for Lolita (and even then for the wrong reasons) i wouldn't be surprised that it isn't well known.

[ktr]

I'm familiar with it - haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet however. My copies of Nabokov don't list any of his other books at the front so i wouldn't be able to help you there. I have also heard of it being published simply as "The Defence", if that name is listed at all?

But it being a lesser known work of an author known only for Lolita (and even then for the wrong reasons) i wouldn't be surprised that it isn't well known.

I have it listed as The Defense in copies of The Eye, Speak, Memory, and Pale Fire. (i didnt check Pnin, i have one laying around somewhere)

also, to say he's only known for Lolita is like saying Melville is only known for Moby-Dick. maybe among people with ZERO interest in literature, but hardly true among any mildly interested person.

[ktm5124]

Oh, I feel like an idiot, it is listed as The Defense in my other Nabokov books. Somehow I missed that.

Nabokov is definitely known for much more than Lolita. For one, Speak, Memory is rather famous, though I don't really know why. And then there is good reason why my local bookstore carries at least six Nabokov novels on their shelves.

[Emil Miller]

I read The Luzhin Defense some months ago in the Penguin Classics series. Interestingly, although the cover gives the full title, the page headings are titled The Defense; both cover and page headings using the American spelling of the word.
The book was first published in the UK by G.P.Putnam's Sons in 1964 and by Penguin Books in1994 and reprinted in Penguin Classics in 2000.
It was translated from the Russian by Michael Scammell in collaboration with
Vladimir Nabokov.

[ktr]

For one, Speak, Memory is rather famous, though I don't really know why.

Do you not know why because you have or have not read it?

The opening chapter alone could define it as a masterpiece.

[Bastable]

also, to say he's only known for Lolita is like saying Melville is only known for Moby-Dick. maybe among people with ZERO interest in literature, but hardly true among any mildly interested person.

While the only evidence i can offer is anecdotal, I really would disagree with that. Perhaps it is different in America (as I assume it would be for Melville as well) and other places, but where I am it seems not to be people with zero interest in literature who haven't heard of anything else, but people with zero interest in Nabokov.