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NABOKOV Vladimir : Pnin

Heinemann, London, 1957

12mo - over 6? - 7? tall. first edition, black cloth, dulled white titling, name to fep, bookseller label to paste down, small minor area yellowed to lower corner of front board and fep, minor age browning or foxing, board edges rubbed, better than it sounds, 191pp. Book Condition: Good. Binding: Cloth. Jacket: No Jacket

First Edition

Nabokov, Vladimir : Pnin

Doubleday & Company, New York, 1957

DJ in archival cover with $3.50 and 46946 on the front flap ., Fine

1st Edition

NABOKOV**, VLADIMIR: : PniN

LONDON.WILLIAM HEINEMANN,1957.

ISBN No ISBN.

UK,8vo HB minus dw/dj,1st edn.[Chapters 1, 3,4 and 6 appeared originally in 'Ther New Yorker.'] VG+.No owner inscrptn per se,but a local (Plymouth) Proprietary Library - a private subscribers lending library of books from donor members' - adhesive label with a contempraneous date - Received 11th October,1957 - pasted to front pastedown, with handwritten,dated 'Withdrawn 1989' notification to top of same and a single oblique line drawn across the label,NO other library alpha-numerical notofications of it's past existence within or to the book.Would easily stand sympathetic removal and/or replacement of either label or affected endpapers.Publisher's bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original,plain black cloth boards with slightly rubbed/ oxidised white ink blocked lettering to spine/backstrip - a common detraction and plain white endpapers with off-setting to both opposing pages,due to portions of the original dw/djs' respective front+rear inner flaps being cut out and then pasted to recto of front free endpaper and to rear pastedown respectively.Negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners – no nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore -edges inevitably aged/toned but still reasonably clean,bright and clean with minimal dust-soiling flecking to both; contents of body's text generally bright, tight,clean,solid and sound – no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners – near pristine,unread,apart from my own collation.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,7-191pp [paginated] includes 7chapters; plus [unpaginated half-title+title pages,and author's disclaimers with blank verso. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age and nature, i.e. lacking protective dw/dj,and even internally,the book is also in an acceptable condition/state of preservation and presentation.It is only the book's library classification/status and the attendant ephemera (library bookplate) for that,which prevents a higher grading for discerning collectors.Still an very acceptable stop-gap item for completists or collector,favourably priced compared to other listed 1st edns. 'Pnin' is a contemporary comic masterpiece: it will be read and talked about for some time to come. The ideally bald gentleman with tortoiseshell glasses and scarlet and lilac socks,travelling on the wrong train,is Professor Timofey Pnin (pronounced P'neen' - a presposterous little explosion),emigre Russian scholar translated to an Americaqn campus,his roots still bare,his head full of wonder,his command of English fragmentary,but his fund of learning and goodwill inexhaustible.By slow and bizarre stages Pnin is revealed to us: his gentleness in disaster,his ferocity at crocquet; his St. Petersburg past,out of which reappears a tempestuous,slatternly wife; his present academic surroundings,the most ignoble aspects of which fail to engage his attention; his future,which hangs as vaguely as the exhaust from the small sedan in which he makes his erratic departure. Pnin,ludicrous yet monolithic,is a superb comic hero - like all comic heroes out of step with his time and place.Yet he stands not merely as a character ridiculous in himself,but as one whose ultimate effect is to ridicule the time and place that rejects him. Son and grandson of distinguished statesmen.Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899 and left Russia in 1919. After being educated at Cambridge,he became one of the most foremost Russian novelists of his exiled generation.His Russian novels [published in Berlin and Paris between 1925 and 1940,.occasionally under the pseud. Vladimir Sirin to mask his identity] marked a new era in Russian prose; but were banned in Russia,for obvious political reasons.In 1940 he went to the U.S.A. and began to write in English.He evolved a style which the critic,Edmund Wilson,called 'brilliant and amazing.' He became an American citizen (1945),a professor at Cornell University and a regular contributor to 'The New Yorker'.His English works included a biography of Gogol,collections of short stories, translations from the Russian poets,and three novels 'The Real Life of Sebastian Knight.' and 'Bend Sinister.' and 'Lolita.' all preceding 'Pnin.' - then 1957. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** This item offered P+p included.Offer available UK only,unless indicated otherwise. ** ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB minus dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

NABOKOV, Vladimir : Pnin

Heinemann, 1957

A near fine copy (ink name fep) in a vg+ d.w., top margin worn and nicked, small chip head spine , extending into medium chip top right corner rear panel, shelfwear foot spine.

First Edition

NABOKOV, Vladimir : Pnin

Heinemann, 1960

A fine copy in a near fine d.w., head spine worn

3rd Printing