Pale Fire is a darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry, and political intrigue from one of the leading writers of the twentieth century, the acclaimed author of Lolita. A half-poem, half-prose creation, this ingeniously constructed parody of detective fiction and learned commentary offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures. At its center lies a 999-line poem written by the literary genius John Shade just before his death. Surrounding the poem is a foreword and commentary by the demented scholar Charles Kinbote, who interweaves adoring literary analysis with the fantastical tale of an assassin from the land of Zembla in pursuit of a deposed king. Brilliantly constructed and wildly inventive, Vladimir Nabokov’s witty novel achieves that rarest of things in literature—perfect tragicomic balance.