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Vladimir Nabokov
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Invitation to a Beheading Paperback – September 19, 1989

by Vladimir Nabokov (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 321 ratings
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Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world.

In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude," an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers, an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws, who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed, he simply wills his executioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    September 19, 1989
  5. Dimensions
    5.17 x 0.63 x 8.01 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679725318
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679725312
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." -- John Updike

From the Inside Flap

Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude." an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers. an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws. who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed. he simply wills his executioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reissue edition (September 19, 1989)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679725318
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679725312
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.63 x 8.01 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 321 ratings

About the author

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Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokov household was trilingual, and as a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his honors degree in 1922. For the next eighteen years he lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin and supporting himself through translations, lessons in English and tennis, and by composing the first crossword puzzles in Russian. In 1925 he married Vera Slonim, with whom he had one child, a son, Dmitri. Having already fled Russia and Germany, Nabokov became a refugee once more in 1940, when he was forced to leave France for the United States. There he taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He also gave up writing in Russian and began composing ficticvbn ral books of criticism. Vladimir Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
321 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ioana
5.0 out of 5 stars Surrealist portrait that reveals the absurdities of human (moral, social) conventions
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2014
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100 stars! This is by far one of the most absurd, imaginative, and metaphorically insightful works of art I have ever encountered - it is what I would imagine a Dali painting to be if it were a novel. It is also brilliantly written.

Invitation to a Beheading is a phenomenological exploration (in the tradition of Husserl, but more resembling Gaston Bachelard's phenomenology), serving to snap us out of our familiarity and out of our forgetting of the nature of our reality by continually inserting the ridiculous into the narrative: a family who brings their furniture with them to jail for a brief visit of an inmate; a spider who inhabits a cell with the protagonist and who is fed and coddled; an execution ceremony which resembles a circus/variety-show act; chairs and furniture that move at will, "and never spend the night in the same spot twice"; and seemingly nonsensical meanderings such as the observation that "an insane man mistakes his visiting kin for galaxies, logarithms, low-haunched hyenas".

I wouldn't say I *enjoyed* this work - though the book was relatively short, it took me weeks to trudge through it; still, it quickly became one of my "favorites", and a work I would recommend to any of my literary friends above others in a heartbeat. I attempt to rate books not on my personal preference, but on whether they hold unique relevance, meaning, and display brilliant writing or insights into human nature. There is no question that, although, as some have complained, this work lacks a "plot" or "character development", it is nevertheless a surreal masterpiece that reveals the absurdity in our own (moral, social) conventions.

HIGHLY recommended, though you probably will not enjoy it if you are looking for a book with a "plot" and if you are easily frustrated by one in which not much seems to "happen". Invitation to a Beheading is more like a storied philosophy or work of abstract art than it is a novel.
7 people found this helpful
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Paul Schuster
4.0 out of 5 stars Remember to keep death before your eyes daily
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2019
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Chapter 4 of the rule of St. Benedict tells the monks, "Remember to keep death before your eyes daily." What would it be like to be such a person? What would it be like to be around such a person? Cincinnatus is sentenced to death. The name harkens back to a noble figure. In this case he is sentenced to death because he makes everyone around him uncomfortable (there are worse reasons.) But he does not know the date of his death...and here is the dramatic tension of the story. I remember when my Dad died. The next morning I went into my bank and a teller I knew well smiled and asked how I was doing. She had NO clue. I have worked with many families dealing with imminent death and I know they don't want me to ask how they are doing unless they know they can answer honestly. Cincinnatus is surrounded by people going through the motions of day-to-day life and cannot appreciate why this man waiting for death doesn't appreciate THEIR struggles. Of course, they are waiting for death too; they just don't appreciate it. This is my 6th book by Nabokov and I have loved them all. And I certainly see similarities between this book and works by Kafka, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Sartre ("The Wall.") but I don't assume an influence
8 people found this helpful
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Abi
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2024
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Great!
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Jon Linden
5.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously Surreal Existentialism
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2005
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In this account of a man sentenced to death, Nabokov reveals a talent for the surreal. The accused man has not been told the date of his death sentence. He has been left completely in the dark. He has been locked up in a very bare and sparse prison, with guards, a prison director and assistant. Yet there are no other prisoners, none in the whole facility.

The mental musings of the prisoner are the focus of the book. The incidents are often highly surreal and not possible. They sometimes seem like one is reading a Magritte. Yet they are illustrative and fascinating. In one scene his family comes to visit him in prison, complete with furniture. In another he sees the prison director who is also the assistant director as miniature people. Wherever his musings take us, they are truly of great interest.

In the final scenes the surreal nature of the musing continues. The scene of the execution is somehow `disturbed.' Things are not as they should be. And as a result, he just disappears, along with everything else.

While the nature of the writing is extremely Kafkaesque, Nabokov had not read any Kafka when he wrote this story. In addition, neither Kafka, nor any of the major existentialists combine their philosophy with surrealism in the same way or to the same degree as does Nabokov in this book.

The book is recommended to all lovers of Nabokov and to those looking for a true contemporary classic fiction novel.
58 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

falconer
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, sad book (with however a questionable ending)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2019
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This is Nabokov's saddest book. There are plenty of sad and tragic people in his work at large - Luzhin, Smurov, Martin, Hermann, Fyodor, Sebastian, Pnin, Kinbote, Hugh - and of course poor Lo. But Cincinnatus, the hero of *Invitation to a Beheading*, has an endless pathos all his own. People in the other books fight back, or bluster along as best they can. But poor, innocent Cincinnatus, held in a cell on death row for a crime trumped up by the hideous regime under which he lives, is not, and never has been, a fighter or a blusterer. Good, quiet, meek, and terrified, Cincinnatus is duped, duped, and duped again by his horrible captors, who take delight in subjecting him to psychological torture in the days leading up to his date with the axe. It is, on Nabokov's part, a brilliant piece of invention - the wild, tacky, kitschy vulgarity of all his manifold punishers is superbly imagined, and beautifully set over against the simple goodness of a helpless creature all on his own. Read it for that. And then try to decide what to make of the ending. This is, as I say, Nabokov's saddest book. But it is also the book where his own thoughts of the afterlife have the biggest role to play. He is very coy, not to say evasive, on what he thought of 'the beyond'. In my view, bits of the issue flit in and out of the other books, never assuming anything like major importance (though some Nabokovians attach enormous significance to it). But in this book, about a man convicted of 'gnostical turpitude' (p 51, and look up 'gnostic' and gnosis' - they may be important) the issue is clearly present. But how? To what end? With what effect? With what success? I'm pretty sure I don't really know. Others are very sure they do.
5 people found this helpful
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knvrao
3.0 out of 5 stars Within and beyond
Reviewed in India on July 30, 2015
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Class apart, though disturbing at junctures owing to the works efforts portray the inner realities of mankind through symbolism
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking!
Reviewed in Australia on October 29, 2014
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This classic example of World Literature is amazing. How one can see his life so clearly, yet be on death row astounds me. Fantastic read.
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Ransen Owen
5.0 out of 5 stars Strange and interesting.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2022
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I'd read this when I was a teenager 40 years ago and remembered that I'd liked it. I liked it this time again. It is hard to describe, but it is a good read.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Kafkaesque
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2014
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This was a good book but the low rating is because I am comparing it to his others. Good but nowhere near his best
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