Despair

"Despair" (1934) is the sixth novel by Vladimir Nabokov, written in Berlin, and his third psychological-criminal novel, after "The King, Queen, Knave" and "The Eye," rejecting the conventions of this genre. Hermann, a Berlin merchant of Russian-German descent, convinced of his own genius, plots a crime that, like a work of art, should become a masterpiece of ingenuity and impeccable execution. However, life turns out to be much sharper and more artistic than the flawed scheme, whose distorted mirror only distorts reality. The first-person narrative form, the hero-narrator's belief in his own exceptionalism, and the brilliant prose bring "Despair" closer to "Lolita," written twenty years later.