Games in Nabokov, in addition to the sheer fun and delight that they introduce into his novels, have a “serious” purpose. These twelve essays by a well-known Nabokov scholar are divided into three thematic groups: letters and word games, problems and mazes, and the riddle of the universe. Johnson describes Nabokov as a Man of Letters, Anagrammist, Literary Chess Problemist, Maze Maker, Literary Cosmologist, and Gnostic Seeker, and shows that the games that play such a large role in Nabokov’s work are part of the intricate web of allusion, coincidence and pattern that maker the presence of the other world in his novels.