Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov

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Description

Nabokov’s dream diary, published for the first time―and placed in biographical and literary context

On October 14, 1964, Vladimir Nabokov, a lifelong insomniac, started a curious experiment. Over the next eighty days, instantly upon waking, he wrote down his dreams, following the instructions he found in An Experiment with Time by the British philosopher John Dunne. The purpose used to be to test the theory that time may go in reverse, in order that, satirically, a later event may generate an earlier dream. The result―published here for the first time―is an engaging diary in which Nabokov recorded sixty-four dreams (and subsequent daytime episodes) on 118 index cards, which manage to pay for a rare glimpse of the artist at his most private. More than an extraordinary biographical footnote, the experiment grew out of Nabokov’s passionate interest in the mystery of time, which influenced many of his novels, including the late masterpiece Ada.

Insomniac Dreams, edited by leading Nabokov authority Gennady Barabtarlo, presents the text of Nabokov’s dream experiment, illustrated with a selection of his original index cards, and provides wealthy annotations and analysis that put them in the context of his life and writings. The book also includes prior to now unpublished records of Nabokov’s dreams from his letters and notebooks and shows important connections between his fiction and private writings on dreams and time.

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