The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
Vladimir Nabokov Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

"The unnamed narrator seeks to unravel the life of the mysterious writer Sebastian Knight, who was also working on a biography on another unnamed writer. This book layers the different stories of Sebastian's life, his loves, and the search for the truth by the narrator and another biographer of Sebastian Knight. The reader is never sure who is telling the story or what is real and what is fiction.

Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout.

"
Deidre Woollard, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's
Life of a profession: - writer
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - scholar
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - healthy but a geeky weakling

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - Baltic States

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Unusual Style: - a lot of play on words - a lot of flashback and forwards - a lot of stream of consciousness - written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
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Now and on Earth by Jim Thompson

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Vladimir Nabokov Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:

Asif Jehangir

SCHOLARS: Jennifer Martin-Romme Annelise Montone Deidre Woollard

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov Book Review

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
Vladimir Nabokov Book Review