Deeply influenced by ALICE IN WONDERLAND (which Nabokov translated into Russian), this is a novel about a love triangle: a callow youth named Franz; the wealthy uncle who employs him in his glitzy Berlin emporium; and the uncle`s wife, Martha, who seduces Franz. The novel was written during Nabokov`s 18-year exile in Berlin where--impoverished, newly married and with a small son, and in increasing terror of the Nazis--he wrote nine novels in Russian. In spite of the circumstances under which it was written, Nabokov claimed that, of all his novels, this bright brute is the gayest.