Worlds in Regression

Johnson's book is a major and innovative contribution to Nabokov scholarship. Games in Nabokov, in addition to the sheer fun and delight that they introduce into his novels, have a "serious" purpose. These 12 essays by a well-known Nabokov scholar are divided into three thematic groups: letters and word games, problems and mazes, and the riddle of the universe. Johnson describes Nabokov as Man of Letters, Anagrammist, Literary Chess Problemist, Maze Maker, Literary Cosmologist, and Gnostic Seeker, and shows that the games that play such a large role in Nabokov's work are part of the intricate web of allusion, coincidence and pattern that mark the presence of the other world in his novels.