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      Despair

      by Vladimir Nabokov
      Published
      May 1989
      Main Genre
      General Fiction General Fiction
      Rating
      Pages
      212
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      About This Book

      The wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann, a man who undertakes the perfect crime--his own murder. • "A beautiful mystery plot, not to be revealed." – Newsweek

      "Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." – John Updike

      "One of Mr. Nabokov's finest, most challenging and provocative novels." – The New York Times

      Despair's protagonist, Hermann, is another masterly portrait in the fascinating gallery of living characters Vladmir Nabokov has given to world literature. In his pseudo wordliness, his odd genius, Hermann is one with such other heteroclitic neurotic Nabokovian creations as Humbert Humbert and Charles Kimbote. Rapt in his own reality, incapable of escaping or explicating it, he is as solitary in his abyss as Luzhin or Charlotte Haze of Lolita.

      Despair is illuminated throughout by the virtuosity and cunning wit that are Vladimir Nabokov's hallmarks.

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

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      Paperback

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      First Edition May 1989 Vintage ISBN 0679723439
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      May 1970 Penguin ISBN 0399500650
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      Dec 2000 Penguin (UK) ISBN 014118454X
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      Feb 2011 Knopf ISBN 0307787664
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      Feb 2011 Vintage ISBN B004KABDVQ
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      Mar 2012 Penguin ISBN 0141911409
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      Mar 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN B004SWUTTS
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      Mar 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1611066735
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      Mar 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873260
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      Mar 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873228
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      Mar 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873244
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      Mar 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873236
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      Apr 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873252
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      Dec 2013 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1480541680
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      Dec 2013 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1480541699
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      Aug 2015 Brilliance Audio ISBN 150128729X
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