The Defense
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Summary
Editor's review
From a professional standpoint, the novel's value lies first in its structural originality. Nabokov internalizes the logic of chess matches into the novel's narrative structure; each of the protagonist's mental crises corresponds to a tactical predicament on the board. This perfect fusion of form and content precedes by decades the various experimental writings that later became fashionable. Second, the novel's psychological depiction of "defense mechanisms" is astonishingly modern—Luzhin defends himself against the intrusions of the external world by constructing elaborate inner chess games, yet this self-protection ultimately becomes a prison of the self.
As for reading value, The Defense offers multiple entry points: you may read it as a tragic story of genius and feel the rare warmth and compassion of Nabokov's early work; or as a case study in psychological analysis, observing how consciousness gradually slips its anchor in reality; or as a key to understanding Nabokov's later aesthetics—the precise detail, the hints of time's non-linear nature, and the朦胧 gestures toward a "beyond" all foreshadow the themes of his mature period. This Shanghai Translation Publishing House edition is accurate and restrained, preserving the cold texture of the Russian original while allowing Chinese readers to enter the metaphorical labyrinth Nabokov so carefully built.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Nabokov's creative development who wish to understand his Russian-period style
- Lovers of psychological realist fiction attentive to depictions of the inner world
- Chess enthusiasts or readers curious about the psychology behind intellectual competition
- Readers who wish to read intricately structured experimental fiction in which form and content are highly unified
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting the emotional impact or dramatic plot of Lolita
- Readers impatient with psychological description and interior narrative who prefer fast-paced stories
Reading tips
- While reading, it helps to know the basic rules and terminology of chess—not mastery, but enough to better understand the metaphorical system in the text
- Note Nabokov's detailed descriptions of color, sound, and touch; these sensory elements are important clues to the protagonist's mental state
- May be read alongside Nabokov's autobiography Speak, Memory, whose passages on childhood, exile, and chess form an intertext with The Defense
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 前言
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 九
- 一○
- 一一
- 一二
- 一三
- 一四
FAQ
I haven't read any other Nabokov—can I start directly with The Defense?
Will the chess elements make the novel hard to understand for readers who don't play chess?
What is the quality of this translation?
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About the author
Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-born American novelist, poet, translator, and lepidopterist. Born in 1899 into a noble family in St. Petersburg, he went into exile in Europe in 1919, later graduated from Cambridge University, became a U.S. citizen in 1945, and taught at Cornell University; he died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977. His work spans novels, short stories, essays, and literary criticism, with major titles including Lolita, Pale Fire, Pnin, and Speak, Memory. His prose is intricate and ornate, marked by irony, wordplay, and unreliable narration, and has deeply influenced modern fictional technique; annotated and guided editions of Lolita and his correspondence collections attest to the continued reach of his work in the Chinese-speaking world.
Feng Zhen is an author about whom little public information is available. It is currently known that five of this author's works are included in the Chinese book database, commonly classified under foreign literature. Judging from the works in the database, Feng Zhen is closely associated with the translation and introduction of Nabokov's works. Representative titles include the Nabokov Selected Works II (five-volume set), the Complete Short Stories of Nabokov, and The Defense. These works center on Nabokov's novels and short fiction and involve literary translation and editorial work, presenting classics of foreign literature to Chinese readers. Because details such as dates of birth and death, nationality, education, and professional experience cannot be confirmed, it is difficult to describe Feng Zhen's writing style or personal background in detail. Based on the listed titles, however, the focus of Feng Zhen's work lies in the translation and dissemination of foreign literature, especially Nabokov's works, offering readable texts through which Chinese readers can come to know this Russian-American writer.
