The most important key to the entire work of Vladimir Nabokov is his most complex, multifaceted and multi-layered novel, Ada, deliberately written in such a way as to stun and confuse even the most sophisticated reader. Brian Boyd's book allows us to see in the seemingly chaotic interweaving of plot moves, allusions and cross-references a single thematic pattern, a strict and elegant construction that, in an unexpected, but so characteristic of Nabokov, way turns the world of the novel upside down and turns it from a hymn of sensuality into an exploration of the essence and the role of human consciousness, its position in time and the moral responsibility it imposes. Brian Boyd, professor at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) is the author of a definitive biography of V.V. Nabokov and a number of books dedicated to his work. Boyd turned to the novel Ada in his dissertation, and this book is the result of many years of thoughtful and detailed analysis.