Search
      Tap cover to enlarge

      Invitation to a Beheading

      by Vladimir Nabokov
      Published
      Sep 1989
      Main Genre
      General Fiction General Fiction
      Rating
      Pages
      240
      Buy on Amazon Book

      About This Book

      Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world.

      In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude," an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers, an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws, who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed, he simply wills his executioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

      Buy This Book

      Amazon Paperback / Kindle Barnes & Noble Paperback / Nook Apple Books eBook Kobo eBook Audible Audiobook

      Formats & Editions

      Browse the different covers, formats, and publication history for this title.

      Paperback

      Paperback edition cover
      Trade Paperback
      First Edition Sep 1989 Vintage ISBN 0679725318
      Buy
      Paperback edition cover
      Paperback
      Feb 1965 Penguin ISBN 0399501150
      Buy
      Paperback edition cover
      Trade Paperback
      May 2001 Penguin (UK) ISBN 0141185600
      Buy

      Hardcover

      Hardcover edition cover
      Hardcover
      Oct 1959 Putnam ISBN 0399104526
      Buy
      Hardcover edition cover
      Hardcover
      Jan 2012 Viking ISBN 0141196971
      Buy

      eBook

      eBook edition cover
      eBook
      Feb 2011 Knopf ISBN 0307787354
      Buy
      eBook edition cover
      eBook
      Feb 2011 Vintage ISBN B004KABDU2
      Buy
      eBook edition cover
      eBook
      Feb 2011 Penguin ISBN 0141913800
      Buy

      Audio

      Audio edition cover
      Audible
      Nov 2010 Audible Studios ISBN B004EDOTH4
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Playaway
      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN 144189487X
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Downloadable Audio
      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873147
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      MP3 CD
      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873120
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Audio CD
      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873104
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Audio CD
      Jan 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873112
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      MP3 CD
      Jan 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1441873139
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Audio CD
      Dec 2013 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1480541761
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      MP3 CD
      Dec 2013 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1480543020
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      MP3 CD
      Aug 2015 Brilliance Audio ISBN 1501287397
      Buy