Laughter in the Dark (Masterplots II: World Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Vladimir Nabokov
- First Published: 1932
- Type of Work: Ironic romance
- Time of Work: The late 1920’s or early 1930’s
- Setting: Berlin, the south of France, and Switzerland
- Principal Characters: Albert Albinus, Margot Peters, Axel Rex, Paul
- Genres: Long fiction, Metafiction
- Subjects: France or French people, Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Blindness or blind persons, Betrayal, 1920’s, 1930’s, Obsession, Adultery, Films, movies, or motion pictures, Romanticism, Switzerland or Swiss people, Berlin
- Locales: France, Berlin, Germany, Switzerland
The Novel
Albert Albinus, a bland wealthy supporter of the arts, happily married and the father of an eight-year-old daughter, Irma, whom he idolizes, lacks only one thing in his comfortable life: He has never experienced a grand sexual passion. The novel opens with Albinus about to embark on such an adventure, and the narrator announces in the first short paragraph that Albinus will abandon his wife for a mistress, that he will love her but will not be loved in return, and that his life will end in disaster.
After such dismissive contempt for the tradition of...
[The entire page is 2217 words long]
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