The Defence
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good , price clipped
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Jacket protected by mylar sleeve. Previous owner on front end page.
A masterwork of literary fiction, The Defence chronicles the tragic life of Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin, a socially awkward Russian émigré whose extraordinary genius for chess becomes both his greatest gift and his ultimate undoing. Nabokov constructs a haunting psychological portrait of a man so consumed by the patterns and logic of the chessboard that the boundaries between the game and reality dissolve entirely around him. Written with Nabokov's signature precision and dark wit, the novel illustrates how obsession can simultaneously elevate and destroy a human mind, rendering Luzhin a figure of both profound pathos and unsettling brilliance. The narrative unfolds with the elegant inevitability of a grandmaster's endgame, drawing the reader into Luzhin's increasingly fractured perception of the world. Originally written in Russian in 1930 and later translated into English by the author himself in collaboration with his son Dmitri, The Defence stands as one of Nabokov's most emotionally resonant and technically dazzling early novels.
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Format: Hardback
Published: 1964, Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Genre: Modern fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good , price clipped
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Jacket protected by mylar sleeve. Previous owner on front end page.
A masterwork of literary fiction, The Defence chronicles the tragic life of Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin, a socially awkward Russian émigré whose extraordinary genius for chess becomes both his greatest gift and his ultimate undoing. Nabokov constructs a haunting psychological portrait of a man so consumed by the patterns and logic of the chessboard that the boundaries between the game and reality dissolve entirely around him. Written with Nabokov's signature precision and dark wit, the novel illustrates how obsession can simultaneously elevate and destroy a human mind, rendering Luzhin a figure of both profound pathos and unsettling brilliance. The narrative unfolds with the elegant inevitability of a grandmaster's endgame, drawing the reader into Luzhin's increasingly fractured perception of the world. Originally written in Russian in 1930 and later translated into English by the author himself in collaboration with his son Dmitri, The Defence stands as one of Nabokov's most emotionally resonant and technically dazzling early novels.