Charles Kinbote is a socially awkward professor of the Zemblan language at Wordsmith University in New Wye. He has rented the house next door to a poet he has long admired, John Shade. Kinbote is a disturbed man who lives in a fantasy world, constantly making himself more important than he really is. Kinbote believes, or wants to believe, that he is the most important person in John Shade's life and a dear friend.
Kinbote also believes himself to be the exiled king of Zembla, King Charles Xavier the Beloved, and he believes that he's convinced the great poet to tell his story. Kinbote even tries to steal Shade's thunder at his death, throwing himself in front of the bullet not to save his friend but instead to become.....
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