The real life of Sebastian Knight

Author's name: Vladimir Nabokov Publisher: Jamal Publications for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2023 Literary classification: Brief about the book: But before proceeding to the novel, it is necessary to remind of the author Vladimir Nabokov. He was born in Moscow in 1899 into an aristocratic family, in the city of Saint Petersburg. When the Bolshevik Revolution broke out, he had to leave the country to Crimea, then to Berlin, and from there to London, where he continued his academic studies, graduating from its universities as an entomologist. Although his scientific specialization benefited him to make a living when he moved to the United States upon the Nazi invasion of European countries, his literary path, which began with poetry, with the book "Mashinka" (1926), and "Lugine's Defense" (1930), among others, crystallized in novel writing, during the Parisian and London periods, culminating in the novels: "The Dark Room" (1932), "The Mistake" (1934), and "The Don" (1937). The American period, which is the most important, witnessed the birth of the novel "The True Life of Sebastian Knight," published in 1941, which he began writing while still in France. But the novel "Lolita" (1955), which awakened a new sensitivity in novel writing, based on transgressing the taboo, talking about sex and violence associated with forbidden tendencies: Humbert Humbert, in his fifties, falls in love with a twelve-year-old girl, kidnaps her across North American states, exposing her to all kinds of blackmail, keeping her with him until he kills her friend, is finally arrested, and the girl dies at seventeen during an abortion from a fleeting relationship. This novel gained him wide fame along with material prosperity, which allowed him to fully devote himself to writing, publishing successively: "Speak, Memory" (1966), "Eugene Onegin" (four volumes), "Faint Fire" (1962), "Look at the Clowns" (1974), and others, in poetry, theater, stories, and criticism.