Vladimir Nabokov's last drama, The Waltz Invention (Izobretenie Val'sa), written in Southern France in the autumn of 1938 and published in November in the Russian émigré journal Russkie zapiski (“Russian Notes”), built on the success of his previous play The Event (Sobytie, April 1938). In contrast to the latter, Izobretenie Val'sa was never staged by any of the Russian émigré theatres in Paris. A disagreement in December 1938 between the proposed director, Iurii Annenkov, and the management of the “Russkii teatr” (“Russian Theatre”) put paid to any plans for its production. Although Nabokov, presumably in expectation of his move to Americ

This article in full comprises 1629 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 16 June 2003

Citation: Frank, Sigrun. "Izobretenie Val'sa [The Waltz Invention (English edition 1966)]". The Literary Encyclopedia. 16 June 2003.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4433, accessed 9 February 2010.]