One of Nabokov's youthful works and a hint at much greater things to come. ( )

Didn't even bother to finish it. ( )

An Outstanding Literary Work!: 'The Defense' is a well-written and engrossing read, wherein Vladimir Nabokov uses foreshadowing masterfully. It is a first-rate book!

Chess is a game played on 64 squares of alternating colors. Within this novel, the life of grand chess-master Luzhin is played out on only two squares, one light, one dark.
In his youth he discovers the game and embraces it as a passion, which transforms him from a self-absorbed, unfriendly and angry young boy into a child chess prodigy. When success may finally be his, on the verge of a Cinderella moment that only few chess prodigies ever get to enjoy, he suffers a nervous breakdown at the very moment that he plays the single move that only he has found -- the move that should defeat the hitherto undefeated champion.
His unfailingly compassionate wife helps lift him from the abyss of his breakdown to a life away from chess. Life enters a more subdued phase for both of them but on a darker square. Chess pieces have been replaced by residual demons of his illness and he seeks ways to combat their attacks and get well, always looking for that one solution that should again carry him through to victory.
This is a very somber psychological study of a man whose passion at first energizes his life, but then turns against him. At the same time Vladimir Nabokov's masterful pen changes him from an unappealing person into a very sympathetic character whose life becomes important to us.
No knowledge of chess is required, at all, to appreciate this story of a cerebral person. I hope you read the book and give it the chance, in real life, to grip your emotions as it did mine. ( )

Excellent. Great descriptions of insanity. The movie based on this was good as well but I enjoyed the book much more. ( )