Vladimir Nabokov, Look at the Harlequins!

Barbara Wyllie (University College London)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1974

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Novel

Resources

In April 1974, aged 75, Nabokov completed what was to be his last published novel, Look at the Harlequins! That same month he signed a four-year contract with McGraw-Hill for a further six books – his next novel, The Original of Laura, which he was ready to start, as well as newly-translated volumes of short stories, his Russian plays, and a selection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian verse. It was as if the completion of Look at the Harlequins! gave Nabokov a new lease of life: during work on the novel he was preoccupied by a fear that he would not be able to finish it. For the first time in his career he made a point of keeping the index cards on which he composed in their correct order by …

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2797 words

Citation: Wyllie, Barbara. "Look at the Harlequins!". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3920, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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