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The Defense

The Defense

Previously published as The Luzhin Defense

About the Book

Nabokov's third novel, The Luzhin Defense, is a chilling story of obsession and madness.

As a young boy, Luzhin was unattractive,  distracted, withdrawn, sullen--an enigma to his parents and an object of ridicule to his classmates. He takes up chess as a refuge from the anxiety of his everyday life.  His talent is prodigious and he rises to the rank of grandmaster--but at a cost:  in Luzhin' s obsessive mind, the game of chess gradually supplants the world of reality.   His own world falls apart during a crucial championship match, when the intricate defense he has devised withers  under his opponent's unexpected and unpredictabke lines of assault.
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Vintage International Series

Ada, or Ardor
The Thinking Heart
Voices of the Fallen Heroes
Of Human Bondage
Giovanni's Room (Deluxe Edition)
Go Tell It on the Mountain (Deluxe Edition)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Deluxe Edition)
Answered Prayers
The Rainbow
Caligula and Three Other Plays
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About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin. In 1940, he left France for America, where he wrote some of his greatest works—Bend Sinister (1947), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962)—and translated his earlier Russian novels into English. He taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977. More by Vladimir Nabokov
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