Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. Thirteen ingeniously crafted stories make up Vladimir Nabokov's baker's dozen. In some of these stories shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, with nowhere to escape. In others, elusive glimpses of fleeting happiness, which flutter away before they can be snatched, waylay their victims. Like the shimmer of the sea, the gleam of a glass caught by the sun, these stories sparkle brilliantly only to dissolve again.
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-American novelist and lepidopterist known for his intricate writing style and innovative narrative techniques. His most notable works include "Lolita," a controversial novel that explored taboo themes with lyrical prose, and "Pale Fire," a complex and metafictional masterpiece. Nabokov's writing often featured wordplay, allusions, and unreliable narrators, challenging readers to engage with his work on multiple levels. His contributions to literature include expanding the possibilities of fiction and redefining the boundaries of the novel. Nabokov's impact on the literary genre of modernist and postmodernist literature is profound, influencing writers such as Salman Rushdie and David Foster Wallace. "Lolita" remains his most famous and enduring work, cementing his legacy as one of the great literary innovators of the 20th century.