The real life of Sebastian Knight

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (Engl. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight ) is a consummate in January 1939 in Paris and published in the US in 1941 novel by Vladimir Nabokov and the first, the author of English wrote. A German translation appeared in 1960, another in 1996 by Dieter E. Zimmer , for which he received the Helmut M. Braem Translator Award.

action

The first- person narrator , designated with the initial V., takes the untimely death of his half-brother Sebastian Knight as an opportunity to write his biography . Since they had little contact, V. has to undertake involved research, in the course of which he becomes entangled, for example when he meets Sebastian's former partners.

Sebastian Knight was a famous writer. V. discusses his works in detail and with admiration.

Readings

The novel, which plays with numerous (people) mix-ups, ends with the sentence "I am Sebastian, or Sebastian is me, or maybe we are both someone that neither of us knows."

Dieter E. Zimmer lists various readings suggested by Nabokov research, including: Sebastian Knight does not exist, the biography is a fake; or: the narrator V. is an impostor who wants to profit from the fame of a famous writer; or: The author is Sebastian Knight himself, the narrator V. is just an excuse. Or: Both exist only as characters in a novel by Nabokov, who, through the questionable nature of their existence, wants to plunge his readers into productive confusion about the relationship between literature and reality, between art and life.

background

Nabokov wrote the novel in Paris, where he had fled from Berlin with his Jewish wife Vera and son Dmitri. The seizure of power by Hitler and the looming Second World War split up both the Berlin and Paris colony of Russian emigrants, and Nabokov saw that as a Russian writer he had no future outside of Russia. He was familiar with the English language and literature from childhood; he had also studied at Cambridge . In 1936 and 1937 he had already translated his novels Desperation and Camera Obscura into English. Still, “Sebastian Knight” was just an attempt. Nabokov felt insecure and also introduced the first-person narrator V. as a Russian who writes his first book in English. In the following years he wrote again in Russian, for example the short story The Magician , as well as a novel project from which the fragments Solus Rex and Ultima Thule have been preserved. It was not until 1943, who had lived in the USA since 1940, that Nabokov wrote narrative prose again in English and made the changeover final.

literature

• Brian Boyd : Vladimir Nabokov - the Russian years . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-498-00564-2 .
• Brian Boyd: Vladimir Nabokov - the American years . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2005, ISBN 3-498-00565-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Maar : Solus Rex. The beautiful evil world of Vladimir Nabokov . 2007 ISBN 978-3-8270-0512-0
2. ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer: Afterword by the editor. In: Vladimir Nabokov: The true life of Sebastian Knight (= Collected Works Volume VI, edited by Dieter E. Zimmer). Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1996, pp. 273-276.
3. ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer: Afterword by the editor. In: Vladimir Nabokov: The true life of Sebastian Knight (= Collected Works Volume VI, edited by Dieter E. Zimmer). Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1996, p. 270 f.