Bend Sinister
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- For the album by The Fall, see Bend Sinister (album).
Bend Sinister is a 1947 dystopian novel written by Vladimir Nabokov.
[edit] The title
A "bend sinister" is a heraldic device: a bar drawn from the upper-left side of a shield (from the perspective of the shieldbearer) to the lower-right. In the introduction Nabokov wrote for the Time Reading Program edition in 1963, he explains, "This choice of a title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life."
[edit] Plot summary
This book takes place in an unnamed European nation, where a government arises following the rise of a philosophy known as "Ekwilism," which discourages the idea of anyone being any different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society. This government is lead by a man named Paduk and his "Party of the Average Man." As it happens, the world-renowned philosopher Adam Krug was in his youth a classmate of Paduk, at which period he had bullied him and referred to him disparagingly as "the Toad." Paduk arrests many of the people opposing his Ekiwilist philosophy, including many of Krug's friends, and attempts to get the influential Professor Krug to promote the state philosophy to help stomp out dissent and increase his personal prestige.
He makes an offer to Krug, but Krug refuses outright, and eventually is arrested himself. At this point he agrees to promote Ekwilism so long as his child, David, remains unharmed. This is agreed to happily, but as it soon turns out, the state has unwittingly sent David to the Institute for Abnormal Children instead of the best State Rest House as planned. When Krug and a state official go to gather him from there, they find that there has been an "accident" and the boy is dead. The state immediately conveys the idea that nothing has changed in their plans, and makes an offer to allow Krug to personally kill those responsible. He swears at the officials and is locked in a large prison cell. Another offer is made to Krug to free 24 opponents of Ekwilism, including many of his friends, in exchange for doing so. But by this time he has largely gone mad, and at the first opportunity he rushes Paduk and is killed.
| The Works of Vladimir Nabokov |
|---|
| Novels : Mary • King, Queen, Knave • The Defense • The Eye • Glory • Laughter in the Dark • Despair • Invitation to a Beheading • The Gift • The Enchanter • The Real Life of Sebastian Knight • Bend Sinister • Lolita • Pnin • Pale Fire • Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle • Transparent Things • Look at the Harlequins! • The Original of Laura
Short Stories : The Wood-Sprite • Russian Spoken Here • Sounds • Wingstroke • Gods • A Matter of Chance • The Seaport • Revenge • Beneficence • Details of a Sunset • The Thunderstorm • La Veneziana • Bachmann • The Dragon • Christmas • A Letter That Never Reached Russia • The Fight • The Return of Chorb • A Guide to Berlin • A Nursery Tale • Terror • Razor • The Passenger • The Doorbell • An Affair of Honor • The Christmas Story • The Potato Elf • The Aurelian • A Dashing Fellow • A Bad Day • The Visit to the Museum • A Busy Man • Terra Incognita • The Reunion • Lips to Lips • Orache • Music • Perfection • The Admiralty Spire • The Leonardo • In Memory of L. I. Shigaev • The Circle • A Russian Beauty • Breaking the News • Torpid Smoke • Recruiting • A Slice of Life • Spring in Fialta • Cloud, Castle, Lake • Tyrants Destroyed • Lik • Vasiliy Shishkov • Ultima Thule • Solus Rex • Mademoiselle O • The Assistant Producer • "That in Aleppo Once..." • A Forgotten Poet • Time and Ebb • Conversation Piece, 1945 • Signs and Symbols • First Love • Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster • The Vane Sisters • Lance • Easter Rain Drama : Death • The Grandfather • The North Pole • The Tragedy of Mr. Morn • The Man from the USSR • The Event • The Waltz Invention Non-Fiction : Speak, Memory • Strong Opinions • Nikolai Gogol • Lectures on Literature • Lectures on Russian Literature • Lectures on Don Quixote • The Nabokov-Wilson letters • Selected Letters, 1940-1977 Miscellaneous : Poems and Problems • Lolita: A Screenplay • The Annotated Lolita • Carrousel |
