F
IRST
V
INTAGE
I
NTERNATIONAL
E
DITION
, A
PRIL
1989
Copyright © 1962 by Vera Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover by the Putnam Publishing Group in 1962. This edition published by arrangement with the Estate of Vladimir Nabokov.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899–1977.
Pale fire: a novel / by Vladimir Nabokov. — 1st Vintage international ed.
p. cm.—(Vintage international)
I. Title.
PS3527.A15P3 1989 88-40532
813’.54—dc19
89C
Ebook ISBN 9780307787651
Cover art by Stephen Doyle
Cover photograph by Alison Gootee
rh_3.1_c0_r4
To Véra
This reminds me of the ludicrous account he gave Mr. Langton, of the despicable state of a young gentleman of good family. “Sir, when I heard of him last, he was running about town shooting cats.” And then in a sort of kindly reverie, he bethought himself of his own favorite cat, and said, “But Hodge shan’t be shot: no, no, Hodge shall not be shot.”
J AMES B OSWELL , the Life of Samuel Johnson