Nabokov, Vladimir

Bend Sinister

New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1947. First Edition. Hardcover. "Bend Sinister is a dramatic fantasy of modern man menaced by the rising tyrant State which, under the familiar slogans of Equality and Community, extinguishes the free intelligence and all normal human relations. From the opening scene in a hospital, where the hero Adam Krug's wife is dying, to the last scene where the author, like Prospero at the end of The Tempest, takes command of the creatures of his imagination, there is a drama of mounting, of almost intolerable intensity. The "color" of this novel has the weird brilliance of a dream seen under Kleig lights." (from front flap) The second novel written in English by Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), the canonical Russian-American writer whose exquisitely intricate works are being enshrined in the Library of America series. Subtitled "A novel of man under the tyrant state" (jacket front cover), this portentious & disturbing novel was written in the immediate wake of the Second World War & brilliantly addresses the insidious attraction & ultimate catastrophe of the twentieth-century totalitarian state-phenomenon. Nabokov himself narrowly escaped the fatal consequences of Soviet & Nazi totalitarianism by immigrating to the USA, where this novel was first published in 1947. Offered here is that very first edition, hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first printing as stated on copyright page. An essential Nabokov collectible in its scarcest original form. Book in fine condition with very slight rubbing to black cloth front, back covers & spine (gilt letters at spine complete & only slightly dulled); mild wear incl. some loss of surface color & a few tiny bumps, creases at esp. lower edges & corners of same; mild browning, rubbing & occasional spotting to edges of text block. Interior fine with mild browning to blank paste-downs, endpapers & page leaves (the latter mostly at blank margins/edges); occasional spotting & several very small blue ink spot-stains at recto of front endpaper, one of which bleeds slightly onto verso of same. Dust jacket fine with mild rubbing, browning & faint scratching to front, back covers, spine & flaps; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same. Fine / Fine. [Item #5683]

Price: $300.00