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, ...
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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. One of the twentieth 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. "Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." -- John Updike
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Add this copy of Invitation to a Beheading to cart. $39.23, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Brilliance Audio.
While in the middle of a long, difficult non-fiction study by the sociologist of religion Robert Bellah, I took time away to read a novel. The book I read, Nabokov's "Invitation to a Beheading" proved shorter but as thoughtful and if anything more obscure than Bellah's outstanding work. Nabokov (1899 -- 1979) wrote "Invitation to a Beheading" in Russian early in his career in 1935, several years before moving to the United States.
Nabokov's novel tells the story of a young man of 30, Cincinnatus C. Allusions may be important. Cincinnatus was a Roman statesman who defeated an invasion and then returned to his farm, refusing an offer of kingship. George Washington sometimes is called the American Cincinnatus. There are other important allusions in Nabokov's novel, including one to Socrates. Cincinnatus C. is arrested and sentenced to death by beheading for the strange, unexplained crime of "gnostic turpitude." Most of the novel is set in prison over a period of weeks while Cincinnatus awaits execution.
The reader gradually learns about Cincinnatus through his own words and those of the narrator which tend to merge together. The reader also learns of Cincinnatus' life in the jail surrounded by shadowy figures including the guard, the prison director, the director's daughter, a sole fellow-prisoner, a librarian, and other characters. Cincinnatus had led a lonely, frustrated life as a would-be writer. He was raised as an orphan, cuckolded repeatedly by his wife, and always felt himself a loner, misunderstood and neglected.
While in prison, Cincinnatus is obsessed with finding out the day of his execution. He wants to put his thoughts to paper, but he says he is unwilling to make the effort if his work is interrupted by his beheading. Part of the book consists of bizarre, surrealistic events during the incarceration while parts consist of Cincinnatus'/the narrator's brilliant full observations and passionate writing. There are long, beautiful if ranting passages of his feelings and observations which mark an astonishing writer.
The novel provokes thought and bears multiple interpretations. Various political interpretations might be offered focusing broadly on the individual and his relationship to an allegedly cruel, totalitarian, or shallow society. Such themes have become trite and commonplace and don't do justice to this book. I found the book more internalized and probably dream-like. Cincinnatus speaks of himself throughout as having a "double" and many of his strongest and longest reflections in the book are about the relationship between reality and dreams. The city in which the story is set and the characters bear little resemblance to any society regardless of how barbaric. To me the story is about an individual coming to terms with his own mortality and with his own creativity -- his need to be an artist and express himself even though most other people will fail to understand -- and setting it out in a story. In the dreamlike, unreal sequences of the story, Cincinnatus comes to independence and to a sense of freedom in senseless circumstances.
The book by Robert Bellah mentioned at the outset of this review helped prepare me for "Invitation to a Beheading". A major theme of that book was the importance of play to human life rather than mere work to earn a living. Art and writing are a form of "serious play" which illuminate one's life. Nabokov's book is playful in tone and, like play, should not be pushed but should be enjoyed. I found this book highly suggestive about the nature of freedom and of a creative life.
