Editing Pale Fire (section)

==Reception==
According to Norman Page, ''Pale Fire'' excited as diverse criticism as any of Nabokov's novels.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last = Page | editor-first = Norman  | year = 1982 | title = Vladimir Nabokov: The Critical Heritage | publisher = Routledge and Kegan Paul | page =  29 | edition = 1997 | isbn = 0-415-15916-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vJgLVmOe1sIC | access-date = 2008-01-19}}</ref> [[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]]'s review<ref name=McC>{{cite magazine | last = McCarthy | first = Mary | author-link = Mary McCarthy (author) | title = A Bolt from the Blue | magazine = The New Republic | date = June 4, 1962 | url = https://newrepublic.com/article/63440/bolt-the-blue | access-date = 2018-01-14}}  Revised version in {{cite book |author=Mary McCarthy |title=A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays |year=2002 |publisher=[[The New York Review of Books]] |location=New York |isbn=1-59017-010-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781590170106/page/83 83–102] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781590170106/page/83 }}</ref> was extremely laudatory; the Vintage edition excerpts it on the front cover.<ref>The quotation is "a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness... one of the very great works of art of this century".</ref>  She tried to explicate hidden references and connections. [[Dwight Macdonald]] responded by saying the book was "unreadable" and both it and McCarthy's review were as pedantic as Kinbote.<ref name=Macd>{{cite journal | last = Macdonald | first = Dwight | author-link = Dwight Macdonald | date = Summer 1962 | title =  Virtuosity Rewarded, or Dr. Kinbote's Revenge | journal = Partisan Review | pages = 437–442}}  Partially reprinted in Page, ''Critical Heritage'', pp. 137–140</ref> [[Anthony Burgess]], like McCarthy, extolled the book,<ref>{{cite news | last = Burgess | first = Anthony | author-link = Anthony Burgess | date = November 15, 1962 | title = Nabokov Masquerade | newspaper = Yorkshire Post}}  Partially reprinted in Page, ''Critical Heritage'', p. 143.</ref> while [[Alfred Chester]] condemned it as "a total wreck".<ref>{{cite journal | last = Chester | first = Alfred | author-link = Alfred Chester | date = November 1962 | title  = ''Pale Fire,'' by Vladimir Nabokov | journal = Commentary}}  Reprinted in {{cite book | last = Chester | first = Alfred | year = 1992 | title = Looking for Genet: Literary Essays and Reviews | publisher = Black Sparrow Press | isbn = 0-87685-872-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/lookingforgenetl00ches }}  Quoted by Page, ''Critical Heritage'', p. 29.</ref>

Some other early reviews were less decided,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/02/lifetimes/nab-r-palefire.html|title=In an Elaborate Spoof, Nabokov Takes Us to the Never-Never Land of Zembla|date=1962|website=www.nytimes.com|access-date=2018-03-04}}</ref> praising the book's satire and comedy but noting its difficulty and finding its subject slight<ref>{{cite journal | last = Steiner | first = George | author-link = George Steiner | title = Review of Pale Fire | journal = Reporter | date = July 7, 1962 | pages = 42, 44–45}}  Partially reprinted in Page, ''Critical Heritage'', p. 140.</ref><ref>{{cite news | last = Dennis | first = Nigel | author-link = Nigel Dennis | date = November 11, 1962 | title = It's Hard to Name This Butterfly! | publisher = Sunday Telegraph | page = 6}} Reprinted in Page, ''Critical Heritage'', pp. 142–143.</ref> or saying that its artistry offers "only a [[kibitzer]]'s pleasure".<ref name=Kermode>{{cite journal | last = Kermode | first = Frank | title = Zemblances | date = November 9, 1962 | journal = New Statesman | pages = 671–672}}  Reprinted in Page, ''Critical Heritage'', pp. 144–148</ref> Macdonald called the reviews he had seen, other than McCarthy's, "cautiously unfavorable".<ref name=Macd/>  ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''{{'}}s 1962 review stated that "''Pale Fire'' does not really cohere as a satire; good as it is, the novel in the end seems to be mostly an exercise in agility – or perhaps in bewilderment",<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938428,00.html?internalid=atb100|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070104075852/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938428,00.html?internalid=atb100|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 4, 2007|title=Books: The Russian Box Trick|magazine=TIME|date=1 June 1962|access-date=19 September 2010}}</ref> though this did not prevent the publication from including the book in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951944_1952610,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100426144406/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1951793_1951944_1952610,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 26, 2010|title=Pale Fire (1962), by Vladimir Nabokov|magazine=TIME|date=16 October 2005|first=Lev|last=Grossman|access-date=19 September 2010}}</ref>

The connection between ''Pale Fire'' and [[hypertext]] was stated soon after its publication; in 1969, the information-technology researcher [[Ted Nelson]] obtained permission from the novel's publishers to use it for a hypertext demonstration at [[Brown University]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Wolf |first=Gary |date=June 1995 |title=The Curse of Xanadu |url=https://www.wired.com/1995/06/xanadu/?pg=5&topic= |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |volume=3 |page=5 |number=6}}</ref> A 2009 paper by Annalisa Volpone also compares ''Pale Fire'' to hypertext.<ref>{{cite web |last=Volpone |first=Annalisa |year=2009 |title='See the Web of the World': The (Hyper) Textual Plagiarism in Joyce's ''Finnegans Wake'' and Nabokov's ''Pale Fire'' |url=http://etc.dal.ca/noj/articles/volume3//05_Volpone.pdf |access-date=2011-05-31 |work=Nabokov Online Journal |volume=III |archive-date=2012-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324195026/http://etc.dal.ca/noj/articles/volume3//05_Volpone.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first Russian translation of the novel, one created by [[Véra Nabokov]], its dedicatee, was published in 1983 by Ardis in Ann Arbor, Michigan<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nabokov.niv.ru/nabokov/kritika/mejer-blednyj-ogon/bibliografiya.htm |title="Бледный огонь" Владимира Набокова Библиография |quote=Набоков В. Бледный огонь. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1983. — Пер. В. Набоковой.}}</ref> (Alexei Tsvetkov initially played an important role in this translation).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.corpus.ru/press/robert-rouper-nabokov-amerike-po-dorgoe-lolite-svoboda.htm |title=Набоков в Америке |quote=Алексей Цветков: Я переводил Набокова, но это, надо сказать, довольно печальный эпизод в моей жизни. Скажу очень коротко, что получилось. Я переводил книгу "Бледный огонь” по собственной воле. Когда работу одобрил издатель, я связался с вдовой Набокова Верой. В ходе этой переписки правка достигла такого размера, что я отказался подписывать перевод своим именем. В результате вся работа была передана другому человеку, а в конце концов книга вышла как перевод Веры Набоковой.}}</ref>

After Nabokov's reputation was rehabilitated in the Soviet Union<ref>{{cite book | last = Boyd | first = Brian | title = Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years | url = https://archive.org/details/vladimirnabokova00boyd | url-access = registration | location = Princeton, New Jersey | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1991 | page = [https://archive.org/details/vladimirnabokova00boyd/page/662 662]| isbn = 9780691067971 }}</ref> (his novels started being published there in 1986<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-27-mn-14195-story.html |title=Novelist Nabokov Finally Published in Soviet Union|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=27 August 1986 }}</ref> and the first book composed entirely of Nabokov's works was printed in 1988<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.ru/NABOKOW/biblio.txt |title=Основные издания произведений Владимира Набокова |quote=Машенька. Защита Лужина. Приглашение на казнь. Другие берега (фрагменты). Романы/ Вступит. статья, составление и комментарий О. Михайлова. - М.: Художественная литература, 1988.}}</ref>), ''Pale Fire'' was published in 1991 in [[Yekaterinburg|Sverdlovsk]] (in Sergei Ilyin's Russian translation).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.ru/NABOKOW/biblio.txt |title=Основные издания произведений Владимира Набокова |quote=Бледное пламя: Роман и рассказы. Перевод С. Ильина. Свердловск: Независимое издательское предприятие "91", 1991}}</ref>

It was ranked 53rd on the list of the [[Modern Library 100 Best Novels]] and 1st on the American literary critic [[Larry McCaffery]]'s ''[[20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction]].''