Bend Sinister
Encyclopedia
Bend Sinister is a 1947 dystopia
n novel
written by Vladimir Nabokov
.
: a bar drawn from the upper right to the lower left on a coat of arms. In an edition in 1963, Nabokov explains, "This choice of a title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life."
There is a great deal of wordplay in the novel, concerning leftward (or sinister) movements.
an nation known as Padukgrad, where a government arises following the rise of a philosophy
known as "Ekwilism," which discourages the idea of anyone being different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society. The story begins with the protagonist, Adam Krug, had just lost his wife to an unsuccessful surgery. He is quickly asked to sign and deliver a speech to the leader of the new government by the head of the university and his colleges, but he refuses. This government is led by a man named Paduk and his "Party of the Average Man." As it happens, the world-renowned philosopher Adam Krug was in his youth a classmate of Paduk, at which period he had bullied him and referred to him disparagingly as "the Toad." Paduk arrests many of the people close to Krug and those against his Ekiwilist philosophy, and attempts to get the influential Professor Krug to promote the state philosophy to help stomp out dissent and increase his personal prestige.
He makes a series of offers to Krug, but Krug continues to refuse outright. Finally, Paduk has Krug's young son David taken for ransom as Krug was arrested. Immediately, Krug capitulates and is prepared to promote the Ekiwilist philosophy, and is promised David's safe return. However, when David is to be returned to him, Krug is horrified to find that the child he is presented is not his son. There has been a mix-up, and David has been sent to an orphanage that doubles as a violent prisoner rehabilitation clinic where he was tortured and killed when he was offered as a "release" to the prisoners.
Paduk makes an offer to allow Krug to personally kill those responsible, but he swears at the officials and is locked in a large prison cell. Another offer is made to Krug to free 24 opponents of Ekwilism, including many of his friends, in exchange for doing so. He accepts in complete lucidity, then, as the author feels pity, a beam of light comes down and strikes him insane leading him to charge Paduk.
There are chess metaphors throughout the novel. Movement and confrontation is exaggerated in the novel, so that the structure can be interpreted as a game of chess, ultimately leading to a checkmate. The opposition between those in support of and against Ekwilism parallels the "black and white" mode of a game of chess. Analyzing the descriptions of the movements of various characters, as well as the use of punning, one is able to draw conclusions about the pieces loosely represented by the characters.
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
.
The title
A "bend sinister" is a heraldic deviceBend (heraldry)
In heraldry, a bend is a coloured band running from the upper right corner of the shield to the lower left . Writers differ in how much of the field they say it covers, ranging from one-fifth up to one-third...
: a bar drawn from the upper right to the lower left on a coat of arms. In an edition in 1963, Nabokov explains, "This choice of a title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life."
There is a great deal of wordplay in the novel, concerning leftward (or sinister) movements.
Plot summary
This book takes place in a fictitious EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an nation known as Padukgrad, where a government arises following the rise of a philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
known as "Ekwilism," which discourages the idea of anyone being different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society. The story begins with the protagonist, Adam Krug, had just lost his wife to an unsuccessful surgery. He is quickly asked to sign and deliver a speech to the leader of the new government by the head of the university and his colleges, but he refuses. This government is led by a man named Paduk and his "Party of the Average Man." As it happens, the world-renowned philosopher Adam Krug was in his youth a classmate of Paduk, at which period he had bullied him and referred to him disparagingly as "the Toad." Paduk arrests many of the people close to Krug and those against his Ekiwilist philosophy, and attempts to get the influential Professor Krug to promote the state philosophy to help stomp out dissent and increase his personal prestige.
He makes a series of offers to Krug, but Krug continues to refuse outright. Finally, Paduk has Krug's young son David taken for ransom as Krug was arrested. Immediately, Krug capitulates and is prepared to promote the Ekiwilist philosophy, and is promised David's safe return. However, when David is to be returned to him, Krug is horrified to find that the child he is presented is not his son. There has been a mix-up, and David has been sent to an orphanage that doubles as a violent prisoner rehabilitation clinic where he was tortured and killed when he was offered as a "release" to the prisoners.
Paduk makes an offer to allow Krug to personally kill those responsible, but he swears at the officials and is locked in a large prison cell. Another offer is made to Krug to free 24 opponents of Ekwilism, including many of his friends, in exchange for doing so. He accepts in complete lucidity, then, as the author feels pity, a beam of light comes down and strikes him insane leading him to charge Paduk.
There are chess metaphors throughout the novel. Movement and confrontation is exaggerated in the novel, so that the structure can be interpreted as a game of chess, ultimately leading to a checkmate. The opposition between those in support of and against Ekwilism parallels the "black and white" mode of a game of chess. Analyzing the descriptions of the movements of various characters, as well as the use of punning, one is able to draw conclusions about the pieces loosely represented by the characters.
Characters
- Adam Krug - University philosopher and protagonist
- Olga (presumably) Krug - Adam's dead wife
- David Krug - Adam's son
- Paduk - Dictator of Padukgrad, former school mate of Krug, nicknamed Toad
- Dr. Azureus
- Hustav
- Ember