The Title
A "bend sinister" is a heraldic device: a bar drawn from the upper left to the lower right on a coat of arms (from the point of view of the person wearing the shield). A "bend," the standard stripe on a coat of arms, is the opposite, from the right shoulder of the wearer diagonally down to lower left. A bend can be referred to as a "bend dexter" to distinguish it from the bend sinister. In an edition in 1963, Nabokov explains, "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."
There is a great deal of wordplay in the novel, concerning leftward (or sinister) movements.
Read more about this topic: Bend Sinister (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word title:
“To revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment.... All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple—a few plain words—”My Heart Laid Bare.” But—this little book must be true to its title.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame. Only those books come down which deserve to last.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)