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The Luzhin Defense

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The Luzhin Defense

By: Vladimir Nabokov
Narrated by: Mel Foster
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About this listen

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As a young boy, Luzhin was unattractive, distracted, withdrawn, sullen — an enigma to his parents and an object of ridicule to his classmates.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 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 unpredictable lines of assault.

One of the 20th century’s master prose stylists, Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899. He studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, where he launched a brilliant literary career. In 1940, he moved to the United States and achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. He taught literature at Wellesley, Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard. In 1961, he moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where he died in 1977.

Public Domain (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Classics Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction France Chess
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"[Nabokov is] the supreme master.” ( New York Times Book Review)

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Nearly gave up, but glad I didn't

Well narrated, this is a gentle story that seems to lose its way as the hero (Luhzin) reaches adulthood, but the ending is sufficiently interesting to make me glad I persevered. Very good overall.

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