The Defense

Vladimir Vladimirovich NabokovShanghai Translation Publishing House2020

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Series
Nabokov Collected Works II
ISBN
9787532784974

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature FateGenius and MadnessPsychological InsightSpiritual WorldFull-Length NovelWestern Literature

Summary

The Defense is Vladimir Nabokov's third novel. Its Russian title, Защита Лужина, means "The Luzhin Defense." Nabokov began conceiving it in France in 1929 and completed it in Berlin the same year; in 1930 it was published in Paris under the pen name "V. Sirin" in a Russian émigré journal and brought out in book form in Berlin. The novel tells the life of chess genius Luzhin: as a child he is silent, clumsy, and overlooked, a laughingstock among his classmates and a puzzle to his parents. Everyday life often makes him anxious, so he takes refuge in chess, treating the board as a sanctuary. People soon discover that this slow, awkward boy has an astonishing gift for chess; he rises through the ranks to become a grandmaster. But the price follows: the game gradually replaces his real life, and ordinary reality comes to seem like a dream. He meets a woman who understands him and marries her, but in a crucial match his carefully constructed defense is shattered by an unexpected move from his opponent, and his inner world collapses with it. The title "The Defense" is both a chess term and the hero's only way of fending off reality. With precise detail, an ironic tone, and a structure built on repetition and fate, Nabokov shows how the man behind the halo of genius, understood by no one, is swallowed by his own gift. This Chinese edition is translated by Feng Zhen and included in Shanghai Translation Publishing House's "Nabokov Collected Works II."

Editor's review

在《洛丽塔》尚未问世的年代，纳博科夫已用《防守》证明了自己是一位能够写出“命运形状”的小说家。这本书的技巧非常“纳博科夫”：他不写心理分析式的病情描述，而是让象棋的规则渗入叙事本身——棋盘的格线、地毯的花纹、反复出现的图案与重演的场景，都在暗示卢仁的人生早已被排成一局无解的棋。 阅读它的乐趣在于两层：一层是情节，一个孤僻少年被天才选中又被天才吞没，其结局令人屏息；另一层是语言，纳博科夫对细节的偏执让平凡的物件都有了不祥的意味。逢珍的译文保留了原著略带冷意的叙述腔调，适合慢读。 纳博科夫本人为这部小说写过序言，回忆了他在比利牛斯山间捕捉蝴蝶时构思此书的经过，也提到俄文书名“卢仁防守”本是棋局术语——这是理解全书的关键提示。对习惯读情节推动型小说的读者，它的推进方式略显迂回；但只要愿意跟随棋子的走法，就会读到一部关于迷恋、秩序与自我毁灭的精密之作。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读纳博科夫为本书写的序言，了解“卢仁防守”这一棋局术语的由来
  2. 留意地毯纹样、重复场景等细节，它们是全书隐喻系统的关键
  3. 读到中后段比赛情节时不必纠结棋谱，重在感受防守被击破的心理冲击
  4. 可与《眼睛》《绝望》同读，观察纳博科夫早期对叙事技法的实验

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

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.

FAQ

《防守》是纳博科夫的处女作吗？ 不是。它是纳博科夫的第三部长篇小说，处女作是《玛丽》（Mashenka）。《防守》写于1929年，1930年在柏林出版，是他流亡时期的重要作品。
这本书和象棋关系大吗？需要懂棋才能读吗？ 象棋是全书的核心隐喻，但作者并未堆砌专业棋谱。不懂规则也能读懂，只需知道“防守”是一种以守为主的棋局策略，主人公用它抵御现实。
中文版有哪几个版本？ 上海译文出版社出版、逢珍翻译的版本流传最广，有2009年平装版（ISBN 9787532747184）、2013年精装版（ISBN 9787532762408）和2020年“纳博科夫精选集II”版（ISBN 9787532784974），另有2023年印次。
这本书被改编成电影了吗？ 是的。2000年英法合拍电影《卢金的防守》（The Luzhin Defence）即改编自本书，可作为读完原著后的对照观看选择。
书名的“防守”具体指什么？ 俄文书名《Защита Лужина》意为“卢仁防守”，是小说中主人公发明的一种防守棋术；同时它也指卢仁用象棋和想象抵御现实的心理防御机制。

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About the author

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov Author · Russian-American · 1899–1977

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.