Camera Obscura

«Camera Obscura» (1933) — the fifth novel by Vladimir Nabokov, written in Berlin and published under the pseudonym V. Sirin. The blind passion of the wealthy art critic Bruno Krechmar for the sixteen-year-old model Magda, who dreams of a luxurious life and a cinematic career, leads the protagonist to the loss of his family, a moral catastrophe, and physical blindness. The deceived and helpless Krechmar becomes a plaything of Magda's cruel lover, the caricaturist Robert Gorn.

The striking accuracy of details that impressed readers and critics alike, the psychological precision of characters, the novelty of narrative techniques, and the ruthless approach of a true artist with which Nabokov treats his theme, foreshadowed another of his famous novels about destructive passion — «Lolita».