55 pages • 1 hour read
Pale Fire
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Pale Fire is a 1962 experimental novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the author of seminal novels like Lolita and Pnin. The novel consists of a 999-line poem by a fictional poet and the accompanying notations by a fictional editor. Rather than analyze the poem, however, the notations create a new narrative. Pale Fire has been heralded as a landmark example of metafiction and one of the most important novels of the 20th century.
This guide is written using the 2011 Penguin Modern Classics edition.
Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss suicide and mental health conditions.
Plot Summary
Pale Fire begins with a short foreword by fictional editor Professor Charles Kinbote. Writing from the town of Cedarn in the fictional state of Utana, Kinbote describes his relationship with the author of the poem “Pale Fire,” John Shade. The men were neighbors, though Shade was disinterested in their friendship. Shade was killed shortly before the poem’s publication. Kinbote suggests that readers would benefit from reading his analysis before Shade's poem.
In the first canto of “Pale Fire,” Shade describes his encounters with death and the supernatural.
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Related Titles
By Vladimir Nabokov
