Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Invitation to a Beheading

By: Vladimir Nabokov
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude", an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers, an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws, who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed. he simply wills his executioners out of existence. They disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.
©1935 Vladimir Nabokov (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Absurdist Classics Dystopian Fiction Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Russian & Soviet Science Fiction
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch cover art
Mary cover art
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said cover art
Glory cover art
Pale Fire cover art
King, Queen, Knave cover art
The Enchanter cover art
Laughter in the Dark cover art
Ubik cover art
Mr. Vertigo cover art
Valis cover art
Mother Night cover art
Letters to a Young Poet cover art
Light in August cover art
The Captain and the Enemy cover art
The Music of Chance cover art

Critic reviews

"Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." (John Updike)

What listeners say about Invitation to a Beheading

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer

Masterpiece

This book is perfect if you're of the kind to understand. The narrator is exceptional.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for S. Moorcroft

Haunting and wonderfully sinister

This is strange novel, and, despite Nabakov being unaware of his work, very Kafkaesque in tone. Playful and menacing it highlights that strangely modern and ancient interplay between horror and entertainment.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful