Vladimir Nabokov
Volumes from 3 worlds.
3 volumes
The Doubtful Asphodel Described
Sebastian Knight — The Real Life of Sebastian Knight · Vladimir Nabokov
A last novel in which a man is dying, and he is the book — heaving, drawing up a ghostly knee — written by a Russian who had switched to English and would not be around to explain it.
The Life of Chernyshevski Nearly complete
Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev — The Gift · Vladimir Nabokov
A mocking, meticulous life of the radical critic Chernyshevsky, written in Berlin by a young émigré who is done with civic piety, and so true to its author's taste that the journal publishing the novel around it would not print the chapter.
Pale Fire Nearly complete
John Francis Shade — Pale Fire · Vladimir Nabokov
A poem in four cantos, 999 lines, about a man's life, his daughter's death, and the persistence of pattern — printed in full, then kidnapped by a commentator who is sure it is about him.