reading list

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

Vladimir Nabokov

published: 1941, read: 10/25/24

236 pages, genre: Fiction

rating: 7.15/10, normalized: 6.833/10

-0.094σ worse than average

-0.068σ or -0.073/10 worse than average in Fiction genre

-0.317σ or -0.267/10 worse than average by Vladimir Nabokov

The book which is credited for inventing the post-modern novel

Similar modes of narrative questionability as Pale Fire insofar as the narrator seems to be dismissing other folks' ethos to speak about Sebastian, and positions himself as his younger brother, uniquely positioned to paint an accurate biography

The chapter dunking on The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight by Knight's secretary, Goodman is pretty funny and inflammatory. Also a lot of dressed up irony for such a chapter to appear in his retaliatory book.

Borgesian detail of the mundane that is relatable and interesting, despite being wholly made up.

meta-commentary on literary tropes, struggles of finding synonyms for phrases surrounding dialog, and the struggle of breathing life into ideas by dressing them with words that appropriate express them

As for Clare, she had quite inadvertently in her well-meaning innocence dallied at some pleasant sunlit corner of Sebastian's life, where Sebastian himself had not paused; and now she was left behind and did not quite know whether to try and catch up with him or to attempt to call him back.

“the first person is as fictitious as all the rest”

Read	Author	Title	Pages	Published	Genre	Rating	Rating'	Tags	Recommended by
10/25/24	Vladimir Nabokov	The Real Life of Sebastian Knight	236	1941	Fiction	7.150	6.833
5/9/25	Vladimir Nabokov	The Eye	128	1930	Fiction	6.500	6.111	real slim shady
4/19/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Despair	240	1934	Fiction	7.000	6.667	real slim shady
5/25/24	Vladimir Nabokov	Pale Fire	301	1962	Ergodic	10.000	10.000	"boy's a liar"
7/11/25	Vladimir Nabokov	The Enchanter	144	1986	Fiction	7.750	7.500
7/10/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Look at the Harlequins!	224	1974	Fiction	8.286	8.095
7/7/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Nabokov's Dozen	214	1958	Fiction	6.635	6.261
7/7/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Transparent Things	127	1972	Fiction	8.250	8.056
6/24/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle	500	1969	Fiction	6.550	6.167
6/19/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Pnin	208	1957	Fiction	7.650	7.389
6/9/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Bend Sinister	272	1947	Fiction	7.250	6.944
6/7/25	Vladimir Nabokov	The Gift	384	1938	Fiction	6.250	5.833
6/3/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Invitation to a Beheading	240	1936	Fiction	7.500	7.222
5/31/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Laughter in the Dark	304	1933	Fiction	7.350	7.056
5/9/25	Vladimir Nabokov	King, Queen, Knave	272	1928	Fiction	7.600	7.333
5/8/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Mary	144	1926	Fiction	7.250	6.944
4/20/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Glory	224	1932	Fiction	6.750	6.389
4/18/25	Vladimir Nabokov	The Luzhin Defense	280	1930	Fiction	7.850	7.611
11/5/24	Fyodor Dostoevsky	The Double	144	1846	Fiction	6.250	5.833	real slim shady
5/30/24	Vladimir Nabokov	Lolita	336	1955	Fiction	8.213	8.014
8/9/25	Brian Boyd	Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery	262	1999	Textbook	9.000	8.889	referenced
7/15/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited	336	1989	Biography	6.550	6.167
7/9/25	Vladimir Nabokov	Poems and Problems	218	1969	Poetry	N/A	N/A
5/20/25	J.J. Abrams	S.	472	2013	Ergodic	6.750	6.389	real slim shady
3/22/25	Steven Hall	The Raw Shark Texts	428	2007	Ergodic	7.688	7.431	real slim shady
11/13/26	Donna Tartt	The Secret History	559	1992	Fiction	8.000	7.778		Kayla
11/13/26	Michel Houellebecq	Serotonin	352	2019	Fiction	7.250	6.944
10/22/26	Yu Miri	Tokyo Ueno Station	192	2021	Fiction	6.000	5.556
10/21/26	Don DeLillo	Mao II	256	1992	Fiction	8.000	7.778
10/16/26	Mikhail Lermontov	A Hero of Our Time	208	1840	Fiction	7.450	7.167		Zack B.
10/12/26	Fyodor Dostoevsky	White Nights	96	1848	Fiction	6.500	6.111		Taylor R.
10/6/26	Rohinton Mistry	A Fine Balance	624	1995	Fiction	7.650	7.389		Kayla
10/4/26	Don DeLillo	Pafko at the Wall	96	2001	Fiction	7.250	6.944
9/25/26	William Gaddis	Carpenter's Gothic	288	1985	Fiction	8.500	8.333
9/24/26	Osamu Dazai	No Longer Human	177	1948	Fiction	7.650	7.389
9/16/26	Herman Melville	Moby Dick	608	1851	Fiction	8.450	8.278		Howarddd
9/7/26	Don DeLillo	White Noise	320	1985	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Ben Roth
9/5/26	John Williams	Nothing but the Night	144	1948	Fiction	7.350	7.056
8/26/26	Stefan Zweig	Beware of Pity	392	1939	Fiction	7.850	7.611
8/18/26	Miroslav Krleža	On the Edge of Reason	192	1938	Fiction	7.850	7.611
8/13/26	Cormac McCarthy	Cities of the Plain The Border Trilogy (3)	292	1998	Fiction	7.750	7.500
8/10/26	Cormac McCarthy	The Crossing The Border Trilogy (2)	426	1994	Fiction	7.500	7.222
8/6/26	Cormac McCarthy	All the Pretty Horses The Border Trilogy (1)	302	1992	Fiction	7.625	7.361
8/4/26	Ray Bradbury	There Will Come Soft Rains	5	1950	Fiction	6.750	6.389
7/31/26	Mikhail Bulgakov	Heart of a Dog	123	1968	Fiction	7.350	7.056		Zack B.
7/29/26	Min Jin Lee	Pachinko	544	2017	Fiction	6.583	6.204
7/20/26	Thomas Mann	The Magic Mountain	706	1924	Fiction	7.300	7.000		Scott
6/28/26	Ivan Turgenev	Fathers and Sons	226	1862	Fiction	7.000	6.667		Scott
6/6/26	Mikhail Bulgakov	The Master and Margarita	450	1967	Fiction	7.650	7.389
5/5/26	Brian Evenson	Altmann's Tongue	278	1994	Fiction	6.500	6.111
5/1/26	Laura Knowlin	if only i had told her	391	2024	Fiction	6.033	5.593
4/27/26	Jean Raspail	The Camp of the Saints	356	1973	Fiction	5.500	5.000
4/22/26	Virginia Woolf	To the Lighthouse	209	1927	Fiction	7.350	7.056		Ben Roth
4/19/26	Benjamín Labatut	When We Cease to Understand the World	192	2021	Fiction	8.000	7.778
4/18/26	László Krasznahorkai	Chasing Homer	96	2019	Fiction	6.650	6.278
4/17/26	Cormac McCarthy	No Country for Old Men	320	2005	Fiction	8.250	8.056
4/13/26	Cormac McCarthy	Blood Meridian	349	1985	Fiction	8.650	8.500
4/11/26	Patrick White	Voss	442	1957	Fiction	7.650	7.389
4/5/26	John Williams	Augustus	336	1971	Fiction	8.250	8.056
4/5/26	Joseph Andras	Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us	144	2021	Fiction	8.000	7.778
4/2/26	Roberto Bolaño	Posthumous Stories	160	2025	Fiction	7.000	6.667
4/2/26	Sophocles	Oedipus Rex	94	-429	Fiction	7.000	6.667
4/1/26	Makenna Goodman	Helen of Nowhere	160	2025	Fiction	7.350	7.056
3/31/26	Roberto Bolaño	The Return	208	2010	Fiction	7.115	6.795
3/27/26	Roberto Bolaño	The Third Reich	277	1989	Fiction	7.750	7.500
3/25/26	Roberto Bolaño	Nazi Literature in the Americas	237	1996	Fiction	8.250	8.056
3/23/26	Roberto Bolaño	The Skating Rink	192	1993	Fiction	7.350	7.056
3/22/26	Roberto Bolaño	The Insufferable Gaucho	164	2003	Fiction	7.625	7.361
3/21/26	Roberto Bolaño	A Little Lumpen Novelita	128	2002	Fiction	7.550	7.278
3/20/26	Roberto Bolaño	Antwerp	119	2002	Fiction	7.250	6.944
3/19/26	David Foster Wallace	The Broom of the System	467	1987	Fiction	7.875	7.639
3/14/26	Alexis Wright	Praiseworthy	736	2023	Fiction	7.125	6.806
3/4/26	André Gide	The Immoralist	154	1902	Fiction	7.000	6.667		Ben Roth
3/3/26	Stefan Zweig	Chess	84	1942	Fiction	8.500	8.333
2/28/26	Lucy Ellmann	Ducks, Newburyport	1022	2019	Fiction	2.000	1.111
2/16/26	Natsuo Kirino	Out	416	1992	Fiction	5.000	4.444
1/30/26	William H. Gass	The Tunnel	652	1995	Fiction	8.550	8.389		Ben Roth
1/25/26	Jon Fosse	A New Name Septology (3)	228	2021	Fiction	7.000	6.667
1/25/26	Jacqueline Harpman	I Who Have Never Known Men	184	1995	Fiction	6.850	6.500		Jessika
1/24/26	Jon Fosse	The Other Name Septology (1)	351	2019	Fiction	6.500	6.111
1/24/26	Jon Fosse	I is Another Septology (2)	271	2020	Fiction	6.833	6.481
1/20/26	John Williams	Butcher's Crossing	274	1960	Fiction	7.750	7.500
1/19/26	Raymond Carver	What We Talk About When We Talk About Love	176	1981	Fiction	6.500	6.111
1/18/26	Sally Rooney	Beautiful World, Where Are You	368	2021	Fiction	6.250	5.833		Kayla
1/1/26	Juan Rulfo	Pedro Páramo	144	1955	Fiction	7.850	7.611
12/26/25	Boris and Arkady Strugatsky	One Billion Years to the End of the World	176	1977	Fiction	7.450	7.167
12/23/25	Sally Rooney	Intermezzo	448	2024	Fiction	7.850	7.611
11/27/25	Vladimir Sorokin	Their Four Hearts	204	1994	Fiction	7.500	7.222
11/10/25	David Markson	Wittgenstein's Mistress	248	1988	Fiction	8.250	8.056		Dasha
10/22/25	Milan Kundera	The Unbearable Lightness of Being	314	1984	Fiction	8.200	8.000		Ben Roth
10/15/25	Louis-Ferdinand Céline	Guignol's Band	287	1944	Fiction	6.000	5.556
10/12/25	László Krasznahorkai	Sátántangó	333	1985	Fiction	7.850	7.611
10/9/25	Vigdis Hjorth	Will and Testament	336	2016	Fiction	8.000	7.778
10/2/25	Brett Easton Ellis	The Informers	240	1994	Fiction	7.000	6.667
9/29/25	John Williams	Stoner	278	1965	Fiction	8.250	8.056
9/18/25	Fyodor Dostoevsky	Poor Folk	288	1846	Fiction	6.750	6.389		Tommy A.
9/16/25	David Foster Wallace	Brief Interviews with Hideous Men	288	1999	Fiction	8.633	8.481
9/4/25	Sue Monk Kidd	The Book of Longings	432	2020	Fiction	6.350	5.944
8/25/25	Roberto Bolaño	Amulet	154	1999	Fiction	7.000	6.667
8/9/25	Toni Morrison	Song of Solomon	338	1977	Fiction	7.350	7.056		Ben Roth
8/7/25	Roberto Bolaño	Monsieur Pain	134	1999	Fiction	8.100	7.889
8/6/25	Denis Johnson	Train Dreams	116	2002	Fiction	7.450	7.167		Ben Roth
8/6/25	Christina Brooke-Rose	Amalgamemnon	152	1984	Fiction	7.250	6.944		Dasha
8/5/25	Thomas Pynchon	The Crying of Lot 49	152	1965	Fiction	8.750	8.611		Preston
8/5/25	Roberto Bolaño	By Night in Chile	118	2000	Fiction	7.250	6.944
8/3/25	Roberto Bolaño	The Savage Detectives	656	1998	Fiction	7.167	6.852		Dasha
7/31/25	William Faulkner	As I Lay Dying	288	1930	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Dasha
7/14/25	Mark Z. Danielewski	The Fifty Year Sword	280	2005	Fiction	5.500	5.000
7/4/25	Dino Buzzati	The Tartar Steppe	198	1940	Fiction	7.650	7.389		Ben Roth
5/31/25	Gillian Flynn	Sharp Objects	252	2006	Fiction	7.000	6.667
5/27/25	Hubert Selby Jr.	Last Exit to Brooklyn	320	1964	Fiction	8.708	8.565		King
5/24/25	Herman Melville	Bartleby the Scrivener	74	1853	Fiction	7.000	6.667		Ben Roth
4/18/25	Jane Austen	Sense and Sensibility	432	1811	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Emma
4/15/25	David Foster Wallace	The Pale King	636	2011	Fiction	7.750	7.500
4/14/25	Elisa Shua Dusapin	The Pachinko Parlor	164	2018	Fiction	7.850	7.611
2/7/25	James Joyce	Ulysses	732	1920	Fiction	8.181	7.978
1/30/25	Leo Tolstoy	The Death of Ivan Ilyich	128	1886	Fiction	6.750	6.389		King
1/29/25	Hubert Selby Jr.	Requiem for a Dream	288	1978	Fiction	7.500	7.222
1/21/25	Kaveh Akbar	Martyr!	352	2024	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Tommy A.
1/14/25	James Baldwin	Go Tell it on the Mountain	272	1952	Fiction	8.000	7.778
1/12/25	James Baldwin	If Beale Street Could Talk	197	1974	Fiction	6.250	5.833
1/10/25	James Baldwin	Giovanni's Room	159	1956	Fiction	6.500	6.111
1/10/25	Anthony Burgess	A Clockwork Orange	243	1962	Fiction	7.500	7.222
1/4/25	Khaled Hosseini	Kite Runner	371	2003	Fiction	6.750	6.389
12/26/24	Fyodor Dostoevsky	Notes from Underground	168	1864	Fiction	7.500	7.222		Tommy A.
12/10/24	Neal Stephenson	Zodiac	316	1988	Fiction	7.000	6.667
11/6/24	Fyodor Dostoevsky	The Gambler	191	1866	Fiction	6.500	6.111
10/30/24	David Foster Wallace	Infinite Jest	1451	1996	Fiction	10.000	10.000
10/25/24	Various	40 x 40	394	2003	Fiction	7.500	7.222
10/20/24	Fyodor Dostoevsky	The Idiot	486	1869	Fiction	7.125	6.806		Tommy A.
10/18/24	John Kennedy Toole	A Confederacy of Dunces	405	1980	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Tommy A.
10/13/24	Italo Calvino	Invisible Cities	179	1972	Fiction	5.500	5.000
10/1/24	Fyodor Dostoevsky	Crime and Punishment	527	1866	Fiction	7.286	6.984		Tommy A.
9/30/24	Jorge Luis Borges	The Zahir	13	1949	Fiction	7.250	6.944
9/26/24	Haruki Murakami	Kafka on the Shore	505	2002	Fiction	5.875	5.417
9/25/24	Franz Kafka	In the Penal Colony	33	1919	Fiction	7.500	7.222
9/25/24	Ray Bradbury	The Veldt	13	1950	Fiction	6.500	6.111
9/19/24	William Faulkner	Light in August	498	1932	Fiction	7.350	7.056
9/9/24	Thomas Pynchon	V.	545	1963	Fiction	7.221	6.912
8/14/24	Fyodor Dostoevsky	The Brothers Karamazov	898	1880	Fiction	8.654	8.504		Tommy A.
8/5/24	Brian O'Raleigh	Passage to Inis Mór	305	2020	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Grandpa
6/28/24	Te-Ping Chen	The Land of Big Numbers	236	2021	Fiction	5.625	5.139
6/26/24	Various	American Short Fiction Vol. 9, Issue 33	128	2006	Fiction	7.625	7.361
6/20/24	James Joyce	A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	299	1916	Fiction	6.500	6.111
6/7/24	Philip Roth	Everyman	193	2006	Fiction	4.500	3.889
6/6/24	Jorge Luis Borges	Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius	16	1940	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Chabon
6/3/24	Cormac McCarthy	The Road	257	2006	Fiction	7.500	7.222		Chabon
5/17/24	Neil Gaiman	American Gods	518	2001	Fiction	5.125	4.583		Nick W.
4/9/24	Roberto Bolaño	2666: A Novel	912	2004	Fiction	8.150	7.944		roon
3/21/24	John Steinbeck	East of Eden	601	1952	Fiction	8.688	8.542		Jack H.
2/19/24	Ray Bradbury	Mars is Heaven	12	1948	Fiction	8.000	7.778
9/1/23	Máirtín Ó Cadhain	Graveyard Clay	328	1949	Fiction	6.750	6.389
12/13/22	Adam Silvera	They Both Die at the End	243	2017	Fiction	2.000	1.111
7/25/22	Ray Bradbury	The Illustrated Man	256	1969	Fiction	7.500	7.222
6/13/22	Stephen King	The Institute	576	2019	Fiction	6.500	6.111
6/12/19	Stephen King	The Stand	1153	1978	Fiction	8.500	8.333		Dad
4/20/18	Anthony Powell	The Acceptance World A Dance to the Music of Time (3)	353	1955	Fiction	6.750	6.389		Steg
4/17/18	Anthony Powell	A Buyer's Market A Dance to the Music of Time (2)	292	1952	Fiction	6.750	6.389		Steg
4/15/18	Anthony Powell	A Question of Upbringing A Dance to the Music of Time (1)	230	1951	Fiction	6.750	6.389		Steg
3/10/18	Virginia Woolf	Mrs. Dalloway	224	1925	Fiction	6.500	6.111		Steg
11/12/17	Kazuo Ishiguro	Never Let Me Go	304	2005	Fiction	4.000	3.333
10/15/17	William Golding	Lord of the Flies	189	1954	Fiction	7.000	6.667
9/1/17	Hunter S. Thompson	Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas	225	1971	Fiction	6.000	5.556		Alex W.
8/12/17	Kurt Vonnegut	Slaughterhouse Five	190	1969	Fiction	7.750	7.500		Sean G.
6/21/17	Fredrik Backman	And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer	96	2016	Fiction	9.000	8.889		Mom
5/27/17	Franz Kafka	The Trial	150	1925	Fiction	7.500	7.222
2/15/17	Frank O'Connor	The Drunkard	6	1948	Fiction	8.000	7.778
10/20/16	Charles Dickens	A Tale of Two Cities	544	1859	Fiction	6.750	6.389
10/10/16	William Faulkner	The Sound and the Fury	326	1927	Fiction	8.250	8.056		Steg
5/20/16	J.D. Salinger	Catcher in the Rye	232	1951	Fiction	3.000	2.222
5/20/16	Kurt Vonengut	Timequake	278	2011	Fiction	8.250	8.056		Sean G.
9/11/14	Guy De Maupassant	The Prisoners	24	1880	Fiction	7.500	7.222
3/15/13	Richard Connell	The Most Dangerous Game	18	1924	Fiction	7.250	6.944		Mom

reading list

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

Vladimir Nabokov

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