King, Queen, Knave by Vladimir Nabokov

Novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in Russian in 1928 as Korol, dama, valet. With this novel, Nabokov began his career-long obsession with gamesmanship, word play in several languages, and multiple, surreal images and characterizations. The image of a deck of playing cards is used throughout the novel.

Franz, an unsophisticated young man, works in the department store of his rich uncle Dreyer, a wealthy and boisterous proprietor of a men’s clothing emporium store. Ruddy, self-satisfied, and thoroughly masculine, Dreyer is perfectly repugnant to his exquisite but cold middle-class wife Martha. Attracted to his money but repelled by his oblivious passion, she longs for their nephew instead, the myopic Franz. Newly arrived in Berlin, Franz soon repays his uncle’s condescension in his aunt’s bed.

Vintage Hardcover / McGraw-Hill / 1968 / BOMC / Very Good Condition