Pale Fire is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional John Shade, with a foreword and lengthy commentary by a neighbor and academic colleague of the poet. Together these elements form a narrative in which both authors are central characters. Pale Fire has spawned a wide variety of interpretations and a large body of written criticism, which Pekka Tammi estimated in 1995 as over 80 studies. The Nabokov authority Brian Boyd has called it "Nabokov's most perfect novel". It was ranked at #53 on the list of the Modern... Library 100 Best Novels, and #1 on Larry McCaffery's 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. Starting with the table of contents, Pale Fire looks like the publication of a 999-line poem in four cantos by the fictional John Shade with a Foreword, extensive Commentary, and Index by his self-appointed editor, Charles Kinbote. Kinbote's Commentary takes the form of notes to various numbered lines of the poem. Here and in the rest of his critical apparatus, Kinbote explicates the poem surprisingly little.
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