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      Invitation to a Beheading

      by Vladimir Nabokov
      Published
      Sep 1989
      Main Genre
      General Fiction General Fiction
      Rating
      Pages
      240
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      About This Book

      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.

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

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      Paperback

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      First Edition Sep 1989 Vintage ISBN13 9780679725312 ISBN10 0679725318
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      Feb 1965 Penguin ISBN13 9780399501159 ISBN10 0399501150
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      May 2001 Penguin (UK) ISBN13 9780141185606 ISBN10 0141185600
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      Hardcover

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      Oct 1959 Putnam ISBN13 9780399104527 ISBN10 0399104526
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      Jan 2012 Viking ISBN13 9780141196978 ISBN10 0141196971
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      eBook

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      Feb 2011 Knopf ISBN13 9780307787354 ISBN10 0307787354
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      Feb 2011 Penguin ISBN13 9780141913803 ISBN10 0141913800
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      Feb 2011 Vintage ISBN10 B004KABDU2
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      Audio

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      Nov 2010 Audible Studios ISBN10 B004EDOTH4
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      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781441873125 ISBN10 1441873120
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      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781441873101 ISBN10 1441873104
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      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781441894878 ISBN10 144189487X
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      Dec 2010 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781441873149 ISBN10 1441873147
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      Jan 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781441873132 ISBN10 1441873139
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      Jan 2011 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781441873118 ISBN10 1441873112
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      Dec 2013 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781480541764 ISBN10 1480541761
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      Dec 2013 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781480543027 ISBN10 1480543020
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      Aug 2015 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781501287398 ISBN10 1501287397
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