The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

About “The Real Life of Sebastian Knight”

The book is a fictional biography of the writer Sebastian Knight, written by his half-brother "V." Its purpose is to correct the inaccurate and biased portrayal of Sebastian in another biography written by his former literary agent. Like a detective story, "V" searches for the truth about his brother, examining his works for autobiographical clues and interviewing the women who were his lovers and others who knew him. However, Nabokov subverts expectations, as all of "V's" efforts fail, leaving many questions unanswered. The novel aims to show the impossibility of fully understanding a person and to challenge the certainty of human knowledge. It was published in 1941 by Vladimir Nabokov.