The Real Life of Sevastian Knight is Nabokov's first novel written in English. Completed in Paris in 1938, it was first published by New Directions in 1941 and reissued in 1959. It received widespread critical acclaim. This edition includes a preface, notes, and an essay by the translator, Gennady Barabtarlo, a renowned literary scholar and Nabokov scholar.

According to the narrator, a certain V., before you lies the true story of the renowned English-language novelist Sevastian Knight, who died tragically in the prime of his life. His life, however, was no less mysterious than his death. V., Knight's half-brother, undertakes a biography of the writer, attempting to unravel the true circumstances of his death. In her investigation, V. relies on Knight's six books, each as intricate and intriguing as the story before you. V. follows Knight's books like signposts, gradually uncovering the writer's tragic story of love and death. But as V. delves deeper into Knight's works, we, the readers, discover that details from Knight's books gradually, like watermarks, appear in V.'s life. So who is writing about whom? Did Sebastian Knight really exist? And did the narrator really exist?