# Invitation to a Beheading

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/vladimir-nabakov/invitation-to-a-beheading/9780141913803

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- Book: [Invitation to a Beheading](https://www.bookquiver.com/vladimir-nabakov/invitation-to-a-beheading) ([Invitation to a Beheading.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/vladimir-nabakov/invitation-to-a-beheading.md))
- Authors: [Vladimir Nabakov](https://www.bookquiver.com/vladimir-nabakov)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-01-4191-380-3
- Published: 2012-03-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

Written in Berlin in 1934, Invitation to a Beheading contains all the surprise, excitement and magical intensity of a work created in two brief weeks of sustained inspiration. It takes us into the fantastic prison-world of Cincinnatus, a man condemned to death and spending his last days in prison not quite knowing when the end will come. Nabokov described the book as ‘a violin in a void. The worldling will deem it a trick. Old men will hurriedly turn from it to regional romances and the lives of public figures … The evil-minded will perceive in little Emmie a sister of little Lolita … But I know a few readers who will jump up, ruffling their hair’.