庶出的标志 (1947)

《庶出的标志》（Bend Sinister）是弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫的一部反乌托邦小说，写于1945-1946年，由亨利·霍尔特公司于1947年出版。这是纳博科夫的第十一部小说，也是他的第二部用英语写的小说。

Bend Sinister is a dystopian novel written by Vladimir Nabokov during the years 1945 and 1946, and published by Henry Holt and Company in 1947. It was Nabokov's eleventh novel and his second written in English.

Title

In heraldry, a standard "bend" is a diagonal band from the upper dexter to the lower sinister (that is, from the upper right of the coat of arms' bearer to his lower left) and a "bend sinister" is its left-handed reverse. To a viewer facing the shield the appearances will be reversed, \ and / respectively. In a 1963 edition of the book, Nabokov explains that "this choice of a title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life." In the novel, Nabokov often uses word-play concerning leftward (or "sinister") movements.

Plot summary

The book takes place in a fictitious Eastern European city of Padukgrad, where a government arises following the rise of a philosophy known as "Ekwilism", which discourages the idea of anyone being different from anyone else, and promotes the state as the prominent good in society. The story begins with the protagonist, a university professor and renowned philosopher in his country Adam Krug, who had just lost his wife to an unsuccessful surgery. He is quickly asked to sign and deliver a speech to the leader of the new government by the head of the university and his colleagues, but Krug refuses. The government is led by a man named Paduk and his "Party of the Average Man".

After Adam Krug leaves the university, it is revealed through he memories that he was a classmate of Paduk in school, whom he frequently bullied and referred to disparagingly as "the Toad". Meanwhile, Paduk arrests many of the people close to Krug and those against his Ekwilist philosophy, and attempts to get the influential Krug to promote the state philosophy to help stomp out dissent and increase his personal prestige as a newly established leader.

Paduk calls Krug to his office and tries to entice Adam with various offers, but Krug persistently refuses, even after his friends and acquaintances (Maximov, Ember, and Hedron) are arrested by Paduk’s authorities and incarcerated. Finally, Paduk orders the kidnapping of Krug's young son, David, for a ransom. After Krug capitulates and is prepared to promote the Ekwilist philosophy, Paduk promises David's safe return. However, when David is to be returned to him, Krug is horrified to find that the child he is presented is not his son.; due to a bureaucratic error, David has been sent to a rehabilitation clinic for violent prisoners (disguised as an orphanage) where he was killed when offered as a "release" to the prisoners.

Paduk makes an offer to allow Krug to personally kill those responsible, but he swears at the officials and is locked in a large prison cell. Another offer is made to Krug to free 24 opponents of Ekwilism, including his friends who have been arrested, in exchange for doing so. Krug once again refuses and charges to attack Paduk before being shot by Paduk’s henchmen. At this point, Nabokov feels such pity for Krug that he actually intervenes into the narration and emphasizes that Bend Sinister was, thankfully, a fictional story and that Adam Krug never existed.

Characters

Adam Krug

The novel’s protagonist, a university professor, a renowned author, and an influential philosopher in Padukgrad. Paduk attempts to get him to endorse and cooperate with the new government.

Olga Krug

Adam's late wife, who dies after an unsuccessful surgery in the very beginning of the novel.

David Krug

Adam's and Olga’s son, who is indirectly killed by Paduk’s authorities after a bureaucratic mix-up.

Paduk

Dictator of Padukgrad; founder of Ekwilism and the Party of the Average Man. He is also a former classmate of Adam Krug, who nicknamed him "the Toad".

Ember

A Padukgrad intellectual who studies the works of Shakespeare. Since he is Adam Krug’s best friend, Paduk’s authorities arrest him in order to put pressure on Krug.

Mariette