The Feat

«The Feat» (1931), the fourth novel by Vladimir Nabokov, written in Berlin, represents a new perspective on the classic «bildungsroman». Nabokov endows his poignant hero with some of his own traits and circumstances, while at the same time making him a person far removed from literature. A Cambridge graduate with the floral name Martyn Edelweiss, a Russian émigré, dreams of accomplishing something extraordinary. He travels across Europe, vainly seeking an outlet for his abilities. The vague aspiration that has never left him gradually takes shape, and he decides on a feat akin to a mythical descent into Hades — to cross the border of the possible and return to his own Russian childhood.