Vladimir Nabokov’s early novel is the dazzling story of the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of International Grandmaster, Luzhin develops a lyrical passion for chess that renders the real world a phantom. As he confronts the fiery, swift-swooping Italian Grandmaster Turati, he brings into play his carefully devised defense. Making masterly play of metaphor and imagery, The Defense is the book that, of his early works, Nabokov felt ‘contains and diffuses the greatest warmth’.

Format: Paperback
Published: UK, 2025
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Pages: 192
Language: English
ISBN 10: 0241720486
ISBN 13: 9780241720486