Lolita

Amazon.com

Despite its lascivious reputation, the pleasures of Lolita are as much intellectual as erogenous. It is a love story with the power to raise both chuckles and eyebrows. Humbert Humbert is a European intellectual adrift in America, haunted by memories of a lost adolescent love. When he meets his ideal nymphet in the shape of 12-year-old Dolores Haze, he constructs an elaborate plot to seduce her, but first he must get rid of her mother. In spite of his diabolical wit, reality proves to be more slippery than Humbert's feverish fantasies, and Lolita refuses to conform to his image of the perfect lover.

Playfully perverse in form as well as content, riddled with puns and literary allusions, Nabokov's 1955 novel is a hymn to the Russian-born author's delight in his adopted language. Indeed, readers who want to probe all of its allusive nooks and crannies will need to consult the annotated edition. Lolita is undoubtedly, brazenly erotic, but the eroticism springs less from the "frail honey-hued shoulders ... the silky supple bare back" of little Lo than it does from the wantonly gorgeous prose that Humbert uses to recount his forbidden passion:

She was musical and apple-sweet ... Lola the bobby-soxer, devouring her immemorial fruit, singing through its juice ... and every movement she made, every shuffle and ripple, helped me to conceal and to improve the secret system of tactile correspondence between beast and beauty--between my gagged, bursting beast and the beauty of her dimpled body in its innocent cotton frock.

Much has been made of Lolita as metaphor, perhaps because the love affair at its heart is so troubling. Humbert represents the formal, educated Old World of Europe, while Lolita is America: ripening, beautiful, but not too bright and a little vulgar. Nabokov delights in exploring the intercourse between these cultures, and the passages where Humbert describes the suburbs and strip malls and motels of postwar America are filled with both attraction and repulsion, "those restaurants where the holy spirit of Huncan Dines had descended upon the cute paper napkins and cottage-cheese-crested salads." Yet however tempting the novel's symbolism may be, its chief delight--and power--lies in the character of Humbert Humbert. He, at least as he tells it, is no seedy skulker, no twisted destroyer of innocence. Instead, Nabokov's celebrated mouthpiece is erudite and witty, even at his most depraved. Humbert can't help it--linguistic jouissance is as important to him as the satisfaction of his arrested libido. --Simon Leake

Book Description

Awe and exhiliration--along with heartbreak and mordant wit--abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love--love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

Customer Reviews:

A great book, but not exactly pleasant reading.......2007-09-08

I've read "Lolita" twice now, and it's very difficult for me to explain how I feel about this book. On one hand, I think it's brilliant. Vladimir Nabokov's amazing prose makes "Lolita" one of the most celebrated 20th century novels ever written. It's clever and shocking and absolute genius. However, the story also revolves around a pedophile/murderer, Humbert Humbert. In the first few pages of the book, we learn that Humbert is writing "Lolita" as a confession while he rots away in a jail cell. Humbert has always had an obsession with "nymphets," which is his affectionate term for sexually desirable girls ranging from nine to 14 years of age. He ends up marrying a woman just because he's hung up on her 12-year-old daughter, Dolores (a.k.a. "Lolita"). Humbert and Lolita eventually begin an affair, and Humbert's overwhelming desire for her ultimately leads him to commit murder.

Being the phenomenal writer that he is, Nabokov makes the child molester Humbert appear charming and almost sympathetic to the reader. This man is a completely wretched human being, but due to the author's exquisite manipulation of language, we're forced to view Humbert in a very different light. I think "Lolita" is a fantastic story, but the whole pedophilia aspect has always soured my experience of reading this book. I can appreciate "Lolita" for its innovation and brilliance, but it's just not the kind of story I genuinely enjoy reading.

Lolita.......2007-09-05

One of the best books I have read, by one of the best writers ever. Many are drawn to this book because of its forbidden and erotic nature. But once you begin reading it you become trapped in Nabokov's tale of love and obsession and can't let go. It is a literary masterpiece. Reading Lolita is something beyond being witness to what happens in the story as an outsider. The reader is eventually a part of the tale and it becomes a test of one's own morality.

Erotic and erudite.......2007-09-03

Of course many will find this book to be offensive, as middle-aged European Humbert Humbert, now in America, concocts a plan to seduce and entrap 12 ½ year old Lolita, the daughter of his landlord. For others, while the subject of pedophilia is undoubtedly troubling, what is most noticeable is the incredible depth and smartness of the writing - almost spellbinding.

There are very few sexually explicit descriptions to be found in the book. Far more time is devoted to the mental state of Humbert and his justifications, delusions, and stratagems in taking up with Lolita on a year-long cross-country journey. It is hardly the author's purpose to directly condemn Humbert's actions, instead, he steadily shows that obsession with a nymphet can have no other than an ignominious end.

There is no shortage of observations concerning the uniformity and ordinariness of American life in the 1950s, not to mention subtle commentary on attraction, desirability, and morality. The story line of the book is more than a bit farfetched, yet the book is incredibly erotic and intriguing.

A case study of a pedophile.......2007-07-21

I have read many reviews (not all 442) but no one seems to be picking up on something very important to this tale. Humbert was an unreliable narrator. It isn't that he was deliberately dishonest, rather, these were the thoughts a man trying rationalize his horrible choices and borderline delusional thought processes. His "explanation" of why he desired young females, using his memories of Annabel, were thinly constructed ways of vindicate himself to his readers and himself. Oh, of course! Isn't everything in life a result of childhood trauma? Doesn't that make it ok?
Delusional thoughts? A magazine ad posted on Lolita's wall contained a handsome man who, of course, looked as handsome as Humbert. That must mean she wanted him. A young girl sharing her sexual experiences at summer camp must be telling him because she desires him in the same way. In other words, Humbert is just an every day, ordinary pedophile who wants to see himself as a romantic hero, instead of a rapist
What has rankled me about some reviews is their vision of Dolores Haze. She has been described as manipulative, a willing participant in Humbert's folly, that she was the one pulling the strings. This is what her captor wants us to think in order to feel better about what he has done to her. Every now and then, it seeps into his narrative and his consciousness, that he has done something horrific to someone who was truly innocent. People have remarked that her willing acceptance of gifts in exchange for sexual favors must mean that she enjoyed the experience in some way.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Dolores was an orphan, she had no other visible family members or anyone else she could rely upon. Additionally, she had a captor who let her know, very forcefully, that he was all she had in the world, that she would end up in a horrible foster home if she didn't stick with him. What, exactly, would these readers expect a 12 year old, one who had just lost her mother, expect her to do? What she did was manage her situation the best she could. Her life in captivity was made bearable by magazines, socks, eating at the restaurant of her choice, a tiny amount of personal power in an almost powerless situation. Humbert also gets to feel better about himself, that he is treating her like a princess despite the fact that he is raping her on a regular basis. In the end, Lolita behaves just like any victim of sexual abuse. Her choice of friends is less than savory, worse than her captor and she is, for the most part, damaged beyond repair.
Nabokov is masterful because he has taken something truly ugly and horrible and made it feel compelling and authentic yet beautiful. There were points where I felt dirty and voyeuristic while reading of their trip across America. As characteristic of the poet, Nabokov vividly describes every emotion, obsession, sunset, frustration, landscape, hotel or anything else is such aching detail that it is easy to forget that Humbert is a common pedophile. The duel between his impulses and his conscience are amazingly heartfelt. I can imagine that Nabokov read many case studies of pedophiles and their behavior before synthesizing this into his poetic masterpiece.

I'll hear Irons in my sleep for some time to come.......2007-06-12

I first discovered that the well known name and label Lolita was not what I had thought while reading comments and watching interviews about my favorite Lolita (though that label really does not fit), Alizée.
I borrowed this audio version from the library and am quite glad that I did. Jeremy Irons gave a spectacular performance in reading the novel to me. His voice will forever color the way I see Humbert Humbert. I may have to go back and read it again some day, probably with an annotated version to get all those various references and especially the French phrases, but I just don't know if I could bear to go through all that again. Though, I'll definitely watch the newer movie with Irons as Humbert.
Yes, this is one of those books that is difficult to tell most people that I even read. Trying to describe it is likely to cause misunderstanding. As people have said throughout the decades, it is the witty quality of writing that makes the book so great and the expression of the incredible obsession of love and lust that consumed our protagonist. In the first half I would say that the story line was not really even that interesting compared to the more typical fantasy stories. It was really just so much of ordinary life, albeit not typical. By the end, I realized that was one of the things that is so incredible about the story. It's so real. By the end of the book, I have been convinced that to really have given it a chance, one must read it to the very last word (or listen to Jeremy narrate it in this case). This was some real 'quality' writing. It does beg the question, how does one come up with this stuff? This book will leave you thinking, for sure.

The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated

Average customer rating:

What is pornography?
Adds a new dimension to a novel I admired already
If Satan took up literature, he'd write like Nabokov
Annotations Not Within Text
Important Note about the Annotated Version

The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated
Vladimir Nabokov , and Alfred Appel Jr.
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0679727299
Release Date: 1991-04-23

Amazon.com

In 1954 Vladimir Nabokov asked one American publisher to consider "a firebomb that I have just finished putting together." The explosive device: Lolita, his morality play about a middle-aged European's obsession with a 12-year-old American girl. Two years later, the New York Times called it "great art." Other reviewers staked a higher moral ground (the editor of the London Sunday Express declaring it "the filthiest book I've ever read"). Since then, the sinuous novel has never ceased to astound. Even Nabokov was astonished by its place in the popular imagination. One biographer writes that "he was quite shocked when a little girl of eight or nine came to his door for candy on Halloween, dressed up by her parents as Lolita." And when it came time to casting the film, Nabokov declared, "Let them find a dwarfess!"

The character Lolita's power now exists almost separately from the endlessly inventive novel. If only it were read as often as it is alluded to. Alfred Appel Jr., editor of the annotated edition, has appended some 900 notes, an exhaustive, good-humored introduction, and a recent preface in which he admits that the "reader familiar with Lolita can approach the apparatus as a separate unit, but the perspicacious student who keeps turning back and forth from text to Notes risks vertigo." No matter. The notes range from translations to the anatomical to the complex textual. Appel is also happy to point out the Great Punster's supposedly unintended word play: he defends the phrase "Beaver Eaters" as "a portmanteau of 'Beefeaters' (the yeoman of the British royal guard) and their beaver hats."

Book Description

The annotated text of this modern classic. It assiduously illuminates the extravagant wordplay and the frequent literary allusions, parodies, and cross-references. Edited with a preface, introduction and notes by Alfred Appel, Jr.

Customer Reviews:

What is pornography?.......2007-10-06

Having read Lolita over thirty-five years ago, my fondest memories pertain to the comments made by Nabokov in his afterward. Those who would comment on the pornographic nature of the work either ignored this part or misunderstood it.

Adds a new dimension to a novel I admired already.......2007-05-07

It's hard to imagine a better qualified person to annotate Nabokov's Lolita.
Appel has an extensive knowledge of Nabokov's life and work. He met Nabokov, on several occasions, and used those opportunities to find out information that only the author could know.

Appel uses this knowledge to add new, profound and, sometimes just simply amusing insights into a novel that I always admired but also felt frustrated by the mystery shrouding it. To be sure, even after reading Appel's Annotated Lolita enough mystery still remains to keep me intrigued and also to renew my appreciation for Nabokov's amazing mind.

The Annotated Lolita contains a lengthy introduction by Appel that covers other Nabokov's works, his life and his philosophy. The, sometimes dense, annotations are scattered through the text very unobtrusively so that it is quite possible to read the novel with or without Appel's help.

If Satan took up literature, he'd write like Nabokov.......2007-03-19

As I grow old and older, I ask myself all too often why I bother? Haven't I eaten enough toast? Haven't I bent over to tie enough shoes? Then I come across an author like Vladimir Nabokov and a book like *Lolita,* an author and a book that, although Ive read thousands and thousands of books in my time, I somehow never read before. Maybe it was his name, or fame, or the fact that a movie was made of his most famous novel. There are books that you feel you've already read, even though you havent, just because they are so famous, or infamous. This is one of those books. But if you havent read it and think you know what its all about, youre wrong, utterly and 100% wrong, and youre missing one of the great joys of a reader's life: the prose of Vladimir Nabokov.

This book is fiendishly good. It undermines everything we "ought" to feel, then it makes us feel it; finally it pulls the rug out from under us altogether. Nabokov's narrator, Humbert Humbert, is a child molestor, that's what we'd call him in the bald and unfancy terminology of today. He's a sick, abusive, predatory pervert. Yet it's his voice that entertains us throughout *Lolita,* and entertains us it does. Humbert is urbane, intelligent, self-deprecating, cynical, and laugh-out-loud funny. He's a poet and a romantic. He's the English professor we all wish we had. He knows that what he's doing is wrong. He's the first to admit it. He's the first to admit everything, including that he can't help himself. He is, you see, in love, hopelessly and authentically and obsessively in love. The problem is that she's twelve years old.

Now the truly devilish thing about *Lolita* is that of all the characters in the novel, including even Lolita herself, its Humbert that draws our "sympathy," so to speak. Sympathy for the devil, it is, in spite of ourselves, in the sense that we see the world most vividly from his point-of-view, in the sense that he seems more alive than anyone else in the novel, more perceptive, more uncompromisingly self-honest, more human and, in the end, the most tragic of all the characters. He's a man with an indelible flaw, he's a man in love, no matter how misguided, no matter how criminal, and its Nabokov's "evil" genius to get us to accept Humbert Humbert as our sick hero, man who we might send to prison for fifty years, but who we couldn't help feeling more than a twinge of regret having to do so.

One would be hard-pressed to come up with a prose-stylist whose voice is smoother, more casually erudite, and more post-contemporary than Nabokov...and this in a novel that is already half-a-century old! An amazing text from an author who has after 300 pages of pure reading bliss, shot instantaneously to the top of my favorite author's list, *Lolita* is a book I should have read a hundred years ago, but instead sat wasting my time in graduate literature courses! What are they teaching in schools anyway? I'm ordering up some more Nabokov novels immediately, if not sooner. You should too.

Annotations Not Within Text.......2006-12-02

In the Annotated Lolita the annotations are treated like endnotes...they are given a number at the margin and then you can reference them in the back of the book. This will disappoint any reader who likes the annotations interspersed while they read.

Important Note about the Annotated Version.......2006-11-21

Greg Hullender's review (which is a Spotlight Review as I type) is dead on, especially insofar as he points out that all but the most erudite reader will miss out on most of what is going on beneath the surface of the page without reading the annotations. But...

It should be emphasized that, if you read the annotations during your first time through the book, you will completely and totally spoil the story. Put otherwise, the outcome of the whole book is given away in the first few annotations, and repeated many times thereafter. Unless you're the kind of person who reads the last page of a book first, don't read the annotations the first time through.

Also, I think it is helpful to know that Nabokov was no fan of symbolism or allegories... so don't waste time and energy looking for them in Lolita, because the author himself said that they're not there.

Average customer rating:

Gold Standard for Short Stories
There's nothing like a good Nabokov story
Wondrous
eloquence comes wrapped best in brevity
Who could give Nabokov less than 5 stars?

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0394586158
Release Date: 1995-10-24

Amazon.com

These stories, written between the early 1920s to the mid-1950s, reveal the fascinating progress of Nabokov's early development as they remind us that we are in the presence of a magnificent original, a genuine master. Edited by his son and translator, Dmitri Nabokov, this volume is a literary event.

Book Description

Here, for the first time, are 65 stories--13 of which have never before been published in book form--by one of the 20th century's great prose stylists collected in one elegant volume. Written from the early 1920s to the mid-1950s, these stories will remind readers that they are in the company of a great original, a literary master. Edited by his son and translator.

Customer Reviews:

Gold Standard for Short Stories.......2007-01-04

Put simply, this collection of short stories is a contemporary gold standard for the form. Nabokov's stories are packed with sparkling surprises, playful artifices and languid, confident language. I've put together a 50+ year reading vita and I find myself drawn back to these stories like a moth to flame...

There's nothing like a good Nabokov story.......2006-11-16

Started out reading this book little by little in order to digest each story in full, but then began reading one story after another with seemingly no intermission in between. Both ways suited me fine. In fact, sometimes it doesn't really help to think all that long about some of his stories--they are are like simple chance meetings w/ strangers, while other stories of his spawn dramatic lifetime relationships and require, even demand your utmost attention.

Everytime I stray from reading Nabokov I always come back to his books and think, "Wow, he is such an amazing writer!". I can't say enough about his detailed descriptions, his amazing perspectives, and his uncannily large English vocabulary. He never ceases to amaze me.

Wondrous.......2006-01-17

Although I had read various Nabokov stories over the years I had never done so in a comprehensive manner, and finally decided to do so. I anticipated that this would be a wonderful read, and of course, I was right.

I was well aware as to how gifted Nabokov is with the language; what surprised me is his versatility. It seems like there is nothing he can't do. Contained in this collection is every kind of character imaginable: rich, poor, simple, smart; there is even an entirely credible portrait of a Siamese twin. There is straight drama, fantasy, adventure, horror and intrigue. There are all the elements of what our English teachers told us make good writing: symbolism, allegory, descriptive power, observation, wit, cleverness, heart, and an enormous store of knowledge, performed in a style that can only be described as poetic. And woven through it are the themes that make up the web of humanity: beauty, truth, and love. It is an utterly splendid collection, as good a collection of short stories as any I have ever read.

One of the things that sets him apart is restraint, or perhaps subtlety is a better word. In, "The Reunion," for example, two brothers meet after not seeing each other for ten years. One escaped the Soviet Union and is living a poor, almost wretched existence in Berlin. His brother stayed, and was able to achieve some success as a Soviet functionary. They finally meet each other in the Berliner's shabby apartment. Most authors would not be able to resist the urge to let this to sink into melodrama. There would be arguments, tears, and recriminations. But not for Nabokov. In his story the brothers simply find that they are uncomfortable with one another, and when they go their separate ways the seeming lack of drama beforehand makes their parting all the more poignant.

Humor and sadness are evident in all of this collection, sometimes in succeeding stories, sometimes in succeeding pages. "A Bad Day," is the touching and amusing story of a little boy's visit to his cousins in the Russian countryside, a visit he dreads because he doesn't get along and because he will be teased. The last line of the story--which in the hands of somebody like Updike would be a devastating condemnation of humanity--is here bittersweet, bringing both a tear to the eye and a smile to the face in self-recognition. It is, after all, nothing more than a "bad day."

But if there is whimsy here there is also great power. In, "Signs and Symbols," an old man and woman make a trip to the sanatorium to visit their deranged adult son on his birthday. Such a simple exercise is made terribly complicated by their age, their lack of means, the unpredictable nature of their son, and the indifference of the hospital staff. Nothing is really resolved by story's end; we are simply given an indelible portrait of the difficult, arduous journey that life has been for these uncomplicated, decent people. It is very moving and also an excellent example of Nabokov's worldly or otherworldly knowledge.

Many of the stories here have to do with, as you would expect, Russians and Russian expatriates. ("Write about what you know!" the English teachers say.) Nabokov unfortunately knew about the horrible experience of being exiled from his country, a country that his stories make clear he deeply loved, and to which he never returned. He doesn't spend a lot of time condemning the evil system that drove him and millions like him away, (although he does, briefly, in two of his earlier, weaker stories), he instead concentrates on those that it drove away. There are many excellent examples of this, but perhaps my favorite is entitled, "Cloud, Castle, Lake." In it, an older fellow is taken on a holiday train excursion he tries to get out of, is coerced into taking part in activities he doesn't wish to engage, and told to forsake the simple pleasures he has come to enjoy; all for--he is told--his own good. The train eventually stops at a perfect little inn, which overlooks a perfect lake in which is reflected a lovely cloud and castle. He wants to stay. Of course, he can't. Sad as it is, the story is also very amusing, and, typical of Nabokov at his best, works on several different levels.

The story also contains examples of Nabokov's splendid use of the language at the height of his power. Our friend observes the countryside from his hurtling train: "The badly pressed shadow of the car sped madly along the grassy bank, where flowers blended into colored streaks. A crossing: a cyclist was waiting, resting one foot upon the ground. Trees appeared in groups and singly, revolving coolly and blandly, displaying the latest fashions. The blue dampness of a ravine. A memory of love, disguised as a meadow. Wispy clouds--greyhounds of heaven." How marvelously descriptive this, and so beautiful that one finds oneself emotionally engaged.

The book is loaded with this stuff. You can barely turn a page without some surprise or delight awaiting you. A twenty-eight year old son returns unexpectedly after many years to visit his mother in, "The Doorbell." In the dimly lit room, he is taken aback by the fact that she is clearly preoccupied with something. Suddenly, "like a stupid sun issuing from a stupid cloud, the electric light burst forth from the ceiling." This, by the way, is another great story. In, "Ultima Thule," as a character is walking on the beach, "a wave would arrive, all out of breath, but, as it had nothing to report, it would disperse in apologetic salaams."

I could go on and on. After picking up the book I decided to read it cover to cover, but after about a hundred and fifty pages, I simply opened it and read the stories randomly. After a time I began to open the book onto stories I had already read, and found that I couldn't help but to reread them. Finally, I became apprehensive in fear that I might have missed something.

But no matter. If I haven't gotten to one yet, I will eventually. The book has already become an old friend, and like an old friend I will return to its comfort and joys for many years to come.

eloquence comes wrapped best in brevity.......2006-01-11

I suspect that Nabokov must have been suffering from depression, for voidness usually springs forth little except art. And that's precisely what you find in this collection; his opulent, artful take on humanity makes one shudder! While I admit I didn't finish reading all the stores in this book, I did especially love La Veneziana because it -vaguely- reminded me of Dorian Gray (one of my very favorites). I also read Lolita (recommended only for those who are obsessed with that one elusive love), but I think I like his short stories better.

Who could give Nabokov less than 5 stars?.......2005-09-10

I'm so glad I stumbled upon the Nabokov section in the bookstore last month. See, I'm a Russian Studies major, and the Nabokov class is being offered this quarter. I'm not taking it, but I decided to go check out what this guy was all about. Let me just say --- WOW. This man could really write. It's all like gorgeous poetry. Buy this treasure of a book, with so many beautiful stories in it, and you will not regret your purchase.

Average customer rating:

chess, madman and his fair maiden
An Outstanding Literary Work!
Luzhin is Palpable
you can't go wrong with Nabokov and Chess
Effectively creepy prose, weak plot

The Defense
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Eastern European | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679727221
Release Date: 1990-08-11

Book Description

Nabokov's third novel, The Defense, is a chilling story of obsession and madness. As a young boy, Luzhin was unattractive, distracted, withdrawn, sullen--an enigma to his parents and an object of ridicule to his classmates. He takes up chess as a refuge from the anxiety of his everyday life. His talent is prodigious and he rises to the rank of grandmaster--but at a cost: in Luzhin' s obsessive mind, the game of chess gradually supplants the world of reality. His own world falls apart during a crucial championship match, when the intricate defense he has devised withers under his opponent's unexpected and unpredictabke lines of assault.

Customer Reviews:

chess, madman and his fair maiden.......2007-09-18

An earlier work, this novel is a well-thought-out story of a troubled genius. The setting and characters are recognizable as being from Nabokov's world. The old world European lifestyle, somewhat smelly and pompous, isn't my cup of tea, but the flow of language and the unfolding of the plotline are very good. Chess is a main focus, but the development of the main characters' lives and downfalls are the thought-provoking centerpieces. The last scene demanded to be read several times. It was a bit shocking. The prefaces to many of Nabokov's works give valuable insight into his goals and motivations. He was kind to share them. While certainly not even close to later pieces such as Pale Fire, this is a decent novel. There is a movie based on the book, though it tends to focus more on the relationship/lovey-dovey stuff than on the struggle/battle that is the real issue. It is worth reading, if only once.

An Outstanding Literary Work!.......2006-08-08

'The Defense' is a well-written and engrossing read, wherein Vladimir Nabokov uses foreshadowing masterfully. It is a first-rate book!

Luzhin is Palpable.......2005-03-24

Luzhin is so well-drawn, I feel I would recognize him in the street; there is not a detail missing from, or confounding about, Nabokov's description of him. My favorite part of "The Defense" is this brilliant rendition of Luzhin. He has stuck with me a long time, as though he's a person I've known.

Nabokov refers to "The Defense" as his "chess book," and it's interesting to me to see how many of the reviews here used words like "game" and "endgame" to describe it. While clearly the book is about chess and much of the hallucinatory imagery is that of a chess board or pieces, I didn't read in the plot what Nabokov describes: that the plot itself is organized as a chess game. Other than the end (and even then I felt the imagery, though not the event, was a stretch) I didn't see the plays, the moves. If it is a book that itself has the plot of a chess game, it was the opponent's game for me, in the sense that we never know what our opponent is planning or thinking.

I did not feel, as other reviewers wrote, that the plot was weak; I felt it was plodding. But Luzhin is a plodding person, and the character and plot work in tandem, which I found a wonderful. It's a book to read when in the mood to read slowly and savor or examine the poetic prose of Nabokov. I enjoyed this. Curiously, Nabokov tells us in the introduction how to pronounce Luzhin: It rhymes with "illusion." This is a lovely addition to its tone, though a translated book.

I recommend this for those interested more in Nabokov's remarkable style than as a page-turner, and for anyone interested in his earlier work. I've got the feeling, too, from Nabokov's writing, that he himself was in love with this book and that it was a favorite of his own writing. For that reason, too, it's interesting.

you can't go wrong with Nabokov and Chess.......2004-12-17

This early Nabokov novel is not of the mindbending genius of later works like Pale Fire and Lolita, but it is still better than even the best work by many other writers.

Nabokov is a brilliant stylist and imagines the world of his protagonist brillantly. The phrasing is sparse and compelling, but as the main character's mind starts to disintegrate, so does the book. The last third is a bit of a disppotment. A disappointment only because its a nabokov novel, and I've come to expect such great things for him. Its worth the time, especially if you have an interest in chess, but I'd read his later works first.

Effectively creepy prose, weak plot.......2004-11-05

This brief character study succeeds admirably in two main areas. Masterful prose which you'd expect of Nabokov who writes with a seemingly effortless lyricism to evoke the drab, stark life and surroundings of Luzhin and the development, or lack thereof, of Luzhin. Combined these create an effective, creepy tale of obsession and self-destruction when one views life as a zero-sum game.

However, I read primarily for plot and there isn't so much here. The main plot is actually the setup for Luzhin's endgame. Once Luzhin has his incident in the middle of the book it is effectively over. Like a chess endgame, the outcome is known, as are the moves, they are just played out to the inevitable conclusion.

One other interesting portion to the book was the study of alienation. Obviously Luzhin's alienation to the entire world, but also the alienation of Russian ex-pats to the western world as well as to their newly communist homeland and also Luzhin's wife has alienation issues with her parents which may have caused her to marry him.

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Read It First, Then Read The Reviews
Nabokov's king is a queen...
it's a wild ride
My favorite novel, err..book..err...literary work, or whatever!
Pale Fire

Pale Fire (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679410775
Release Date: 1992-03-10

Amazon.com

Like Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire is a masterpiece that imprisons us inside the mazelike head of a mad émigré. Yet Pale Fire is more outrageously hilarious, and its narrative convolutions make the earlier book seem as straightforward as a fairy tale. Here's the plot--listen carefully! John Shade is a homebody poet in New Wye, U.S.A. He writes a 999-line poem about his life, and what may lie beyond death. This novel (and seldom has the word seemed so woefully inadequate) consists of both that poem and an extensive commentary on it by the poet's crazy neighbor, Charles Kinbote.

According to this deranged annotator, he had urged Shade to write about his own homeland--the northern kingdom of Zembla. It soon becomes clear that this fabulous locale may well be a figment of Kinbote's colorfully cracked, prismatic imagination. Meanwhile, he manages to twist the poem into an account of Zembla's King Charles--whom he believes himself to be--and the monarch's eventual assassination by the revolutionary Jakob Gradus.

In the course of this dizzying narrative, shots are indeed fired. But it's Shade who takes the hit, enabling Kinbote to steal the dead poet's manuscript and set about annotating it. Is that perfectly clear? By now it should be obvious that Pale Fire is not only a whodunit but a who-wrote-it. There isn't, of course, a single solution. But Nabokov's best biographer, Brian Boyd, has come up with an ingenious suggestion: he argues that Shade is actually guiding Kinbote's mad hand from beyond the grave, nudging him into completing what he'd intended to be a 1,000-line poem. Read this magical, melancholic mystery and see if you agree. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

The urbane authority that Vladimir Nabokov brought to every word he ever wrote, and the ironic amusement he cultivated in response to being uprooted and politically exiled twice in his life, never found fuller expression than in Pale Fire published in 1962 after the critical and popular success of Lolita had made him an international literary figure.

An ingeniously constructed parody of detective fiction and learned commentary, Pale Fire offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures, at the center of which is a 999-line poem written by the literary genius John Shade just before his death. Surrounding the poem is a foreword and commentary by the demented scholar Charles Kinbote, who interweaves adoring literary analysis with the fantastical tale of an assassin from the land of Zembla in pursuit of a deposed king. Brilliantly constructed and wildly inventive, this darkly witty novel of suspense, literary one-upmanship, and political intrigue achieves that rarest of things in literature–perfect tragicomic balance.

With an Introduction by Richard Rorty

Customer Reviews:

Read It First, Then Read The Reviews.......2007-09-23

Most of the enjoyment with this book is the discovery of Nabokov's creation. Frankly, I suggest that you skip the reviews here, close your eyes for the moment and simply read the book. Read the comments later. If you want some preliminary comments, here are my observations as a Nabokov fan. By the way, I have not read Boyd's book - the Nabokov expert - but still enjoyed the read.

Wikipedia has the following: "Nabokov authority Brian Boyd has called it "Nabokov's most perfect novel." Is it? Personally I thought "Laughter in the Dark" was his most "perfect" novel as one thinks of a conventional novel, but this might be his most original work, see: (1932) Kamera Obskura (Êàìåðà Îáñêóðà); English translations: Camera Obscura (1936), Laughter in the Dark (1938.

This 1962 book is made up of three parts: the Forward, a four part Poem, and the Commentary. Is this a brilliant novel? Not as one understands a novel, and why would we expect another conventional novel from Nabokov at this date?

I read no reviews or comments about the book before reading it cover to cover, but I had read a number of his books including Transparent Things from 1971 which is very unconventional and non-linear - in treating time and the story sequence. So, I formed my own impressions.

The present story is set in the mythical liberal arts college in Appalachia, in America, called Wordsmith College. The introduction or lengthy Forward is conventional and does not tell us that much. Nabokov does not reveal what he is doing until the poem itself. The story is narrated by a fiction professor or academic, Charles Kinbote, who seems to have an unhealthy fascination for his native land of Zemblan, a small country somewhere west of Russia, which by the way, has its own language, royal family, court intrigue, and revolution. The book is (supposedly) about his analysis of the poem.

The heart of the book is supposed to be a poem by a deceased neighbor and poet, John Shade, plus short comments by Kinbote. But once we get to the poem by Shade, the hoax is up and the reader realizes this is a spoof by Nabokov, and that is confirmed by flipping forward to the commentary. Once I got to the poem and realized the spoof, I re-read the introduction two more times looking for clues (which are there), then read the poem slowly.

The Commentary section by Kinbote has almost no relationship to the poem, but instead is filled with stories of Zemblan and his different pet theories (of Kinbote) such as in a perfect world "the rich get poorer, and the poor get richer," or Darwin's theory (according to him) is that the superior animals end up in the stomachs of the inferior, etc. Nabokov does manage to insert many references to literature in the Commentary.

So, what does it all mean? As a general reader there are many similarities with Transparent Things: part spoof and part riddle. In any case, the book is highly original; it is what we might expect from Nabokov, and it is open to various interpretations and discussions. It is a book to be enjoyed, and as Boyd has pointed out, it is filled with many subtle clues, links, and ironies, so the book can be enjoyed on more than one level.

At the end of the read one sees the story. So yes it is a novel but not conventional. 5 Stars for originality and perhaps it is Nabokov's most original longer work.

Nabokov's king is a queen..........2007-06-20

Who else besides Nabokov could pull this off? That's not a rhetorical question: I really want to know. Here, the Russian savant assails the conventions of the novel, and produces a work that is readable, fluid, innovative, accessible, entertaining, and astonishingly impressive on a purely intellectual level.

Joyce? The foremost big-brain of the 20th Century, perhaps, but his monoliths are, to most people, as impregnable as an eighty-nine-year-old nun.

Gide? No slouch, but his chops do not enter into radar range with ol' Vladders.

Anybody? I confess, I'm stumped.

This book would, for anyone else, be the defining career magnum opus. (Anyone besides the guy who gave us Lolita, of course.) Nabokov gives us a forward, a poem, and then a narrative commentary on the poem. All are brilliantly conceived, constructed, and created. The prose and verse are nonpareil, the characterizations apposite and hilarious, and the satire superb. (Nabokov also fulfills his penchant for tweaking sexual mores of the time by making his narrator--the erstwhile king of Zembla, and current university lecturer--a randy pansy.)

This book clocks in at #53 on the MLA 100, which is way too high.

it's a wild ride.......2007-06-15

I may well upgrade to five stars after I read the book a third time, which may be necessary for my full understanding. This book is a struggle, but it's full of literary and emigre wit. It also exploits the strategem of the unreliable narrator to great and confusing effect. Many of the previous reviewers have captured the key points well, so I won't dwell. I very much enjoyed the late Prof. Richard Rorty's introduction in the splendid Everyman's edition. First time readers should follow Prof. Rorty's advice and convert the introduction into a post-mortem. Relative to the other Nabokov I've read (Lolita; Speak, Memory; and Pnin), PF is the most challenging. Though it lacks the fantasy, PF is probably closer to The Master and Margarita than any of VN's other works I've read. Lastly, I was happy to see that Prof. Pnin's persona is known in PF.

I will say no more other than to enjoy this book and read Prof. Rorty's comments.

My favorite novel, err..book..err...literary work, or whatever!.......2007-02-28

This is a masterpiece work by Prof. Nabokov, but its treasures can only be unlocked by the effort that you put into reading it. But even at its most superficial level, it is an amusing and entertaining story of the magical lost kingdom of Zembla and of one of the most comical monarchs ever, King Charles the Beloved, bad breath and all. But don't stop reading and rereading it again and again, for its mirrors and shimmering depths have layer after layer of meanings, reflections, and depth. It's intricacies and breadth of allusions and references are simply astounding. This is my favorite modern literary work.

One correction to some of the comments, this is work in four parts, not three. It is an introdution, a poem, a commentary, and an index. Don't forget the index! There is a lot of important information there, including the hiding place of the Crown Jewels!

Pale Fire.......2007-01-15

At its simplest, Pale Fire is an examination of the 999-line poem in four cantos, 'Pale Fire' by respected Zemblan scholar Charles Kinbote, a friend of the recently deceased poet, John Shade. The novel becomes less simple when we realise that John Shade is a fictional poet, that Zembla may or may not exist, and that our friend Charles Kinbote is either the King of Zembla or insane, or perhaps both.

The novel opens, appropriately, with an introduction to the text about to be studied. Kinbote goes to great lengths to assure us that his land of Zembla and his 'great secret' are a major theme of the poem. He also repeatedly affirms his friendship with Shade, though the remainder of the text allows a severe amount of doubt as to the strength of their relationship.

John Shade, poet par excellence, is presented as an earthy, ugly man. Kinbote tries to exalt him to a higher plan at times, though textually we only ever see Shade for what he is - a poet, a great poet perhaps, but a poet. He isn't a God of letters or the Saviour of a nation, he is a man. But Kinbote has this to say of Shade's creative process: 'I am witnessing a unique physiological phenomenon: John Shade perceiving and transforming the world, taking it in and taking it apart, re-combing its element in the very process of storing them up so as to produce at some unspecified date an organic miracle, a fusion of image and music, a line of verse.'

Once the introduction has cleared, we are able to read the poem itself. It is 999 lines long: 166 for Canto One, 334 for Canto Two and Three, and 165 lines for Canto four. Kinbote tell us that the poem should in fact be 1,000 lines, with the first line of the poem repeated as the last, '...and would have completed the symmetry of the structure, with its two identical central parts, solid and ample, forming together with the shorter flanks twin wings of five hundred verses each, and damn that music.'

We are told in the introduction that the poem is about Zembla, which means that when we read Pale Fire, we are searching for references and commentary on this (presumably) mythical country. Canto One and Two incite doubt, Canto Three assures us, and Canto four confirms that there will be no references to Zembla. From the first, we are unsure of our narrator.

To the meat of the text, then. Kinbote offers to explain verses and lines, sometimes in great detail. A number of these are purely literary in explanation. He locates references, comments upon the language used (both negatively and positively), and generally acts as a normal editor would. These comments are usually clever, accurate and informed.

But the bulk of the text comes from Kinbote's other comments. As we know from the introduction, Kinbote is desperate to prove a link between the poem and himself. He is so certain of his great friendship with Shade that surely it must be inspired by his majestic Zembla? A word ('Today' on one occasion, 'parents' on another) can spark a multi-page discourse on Zembla, on Kinbote, on the perceived connections. As we read, it becomes clear the lengths that Kinbote must go to prove any connection at all. At first, this seems the enthusiastic ramblings of a friend, but as we read, it becomes clear that Kinbote is not quite sane. He spies upon Shade, he creates connections that aren't there, he believes everything is stronger than it is. Why, we are unsure. Is he a fan, become obsessed with his favourite poet?

A third story - and we are crowded with them, it seems - is that of Gradus, a man hired to assassinate the deposed Zemblan King. As the analysis of the poem approaches an end, so to does Gradus come closer to finally killing Shade. This is not a spoiler - we are told from the start that Gradus killed Shade. But what we don't know is the motive. Was it to kill the King? Or was it case of mistaken identity with a Judge? Again, we are unsure, because Kinbote is so unreliable.

I say unreliable, yet he is reasonably consistent within himself. Zembla is an astonishing construct, with history, geography, culture and customs. Add to that the fact of Kinbote working at a university teaching Zemblan, and we remain unsure as to the truth of, well, everything.

So, a detective story. It is horribly complicated, yet at the same time completely straight forward. All of the plot lines begin at the start of the novel and are resolved in a straight forward manner. Kinbote does not reveal himself to be the exiled King at first, but that is a simple matter of reading between the lines - he goes to no real effort to hide the fact. And Shade is dead, we know that from the start. No, the 'detective' aspect of Pale Fire is that we don't know what to believe. There are multiple interpretations for everything, but the only detailed interpretation we have is Kinbote's, and his is so fantastic that it should be automatically discredited. Yet we cannot, due to the sheer confidence with which he tells his story.

A word on the poem. It is by turns beautifully written and evocatively plotted. The Second Canto deals with Shade's daughter's death, and is very sad. The language is impeccable, as all poems must be. 'How to locate in blackness, with a gasp, Terra the Fair, an orbicle of jasp' is lovely.

Similarly, the rest of the novel crackles with inspired description and wordplay. Nabokov is known for his love of language, it is quite astonishing to realise that English was his second language. We have such gems as 'Would he have crept, pistol in hand, to where a sun-bathing giant lay spread-eagled, a spread eagle of hair on his chest?'.

There is a lot to consider with Pale Fire. The beauty of the novel is easy to enjoy, and the plot, for what it is, works. The greatest enjoyment comes from the mystery of what is real and what is not, but a side entertainment is certainly available in the form of Kinbote's literary criticism, some of which is biting. We may assume that this is Nabokov speaking, as he was known for his harsh judgment on literature.

To end, Pale Fire is complicated and complex, but the rewards are great. If the idea of a novel wrapped around the analysis of a poem is not appealing, then stay away. But if beautiful language, wonderful prose and excellent literature is to your taste, by all means, read Pale Fire.

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A beautiful gift.
Nabokov's Gift; Is it worth the elegant prose?
The Gift
The Gift
The Gift

The Gift
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679727256
Release Date: 1991-05-07

Amazon.com

For most of his life, Vladimir Nabokov was quite literally a man without a country. It's a small irony, then, that his career falls so neatly into national phases: Russian, German, French, and American, plus the protracted coda he spend in a Swiss luxury hotel during his final decade. The Gift, which he wrote between 1935 and 1937 in Berlin, is the grand summation of his second phase. It describes, for starters, the sentimental education of a young Russian writer, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev. This hyphenated creation has more than a few things in common with the author, despite Nabokov's vehement denial in the novel's foreword. Still, only a nitwit would read The Gift for its autobiographical revelations. What this early masterpiece does offer is a wealth of lyrical, witty, heartbreaking prose, beautifully translated from the Russian by Michael Scammell (with an assist from Nabokov himself). Who else would note the way a street rises "at a barely perceptible angle, beginning with a post office and ending with a church, like an epistolary novel"? Who else has ever administered the satirical shiv to his characters with such deadly, almost affectionate aplomb?

Shirin himself was a thickset man with a reddish crew cut, always badly shaved and wearing large spectacles behind which, as in two aquariums, swam two tiny, transparent eyes--which were completely impervious to visual impressions. He was blind like Milton, deaf like Beethoven, and a blockhead to boot.

Of course, only a fraction of The Gift is taken up with this sort of demolition derby. Fyodor's romance with Zina, for example, occasions the most ardent prose of Nabokov's career: "And not only was Zina cleverly and elegantly made to measure for him by a very painstaking fate, but both of them, forming a single shadow, were made to the measure of something not quite comprehensible, but wonderful and benevolent and continuously surrounding them." (Shades of Volodya and Véra? Only the deceased husband and wife, and perhaps Stacy Schiff, know for sure.)

At the same time, The Gift is a brilliant, mesmerizing riff on the history of Russian literature, with elaborate bouquets tossed to Pushkin and Gogol. There's also a hilarious yet somehow tender evisceration of the do-gooding polemicist Nikolai Chernyshevski--which was suppressed, in fact, when the novel was originally serialized by a Russian émigré magazine. As should be clear by now, The Gift defies any attempt at quick-and-dirty summary. But the book plays the most pleasurable kind of havoc with our stuffy notions of narrative structure and linguistic protocol. And as Nabokov repeatedly wraps the reader's consciousness around his little finger, he never holds back on that ultimate literary gift: pleasure. --James Marcus

Book Description

The Gift is the last of the novels Nabokov wrote in his native Russian and the crowning achievement of that period in his literary career. It is also his ode to Russian literature, evoking the works of Pushkin, Gogol, and others in the course of its narrative: the story of Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, an impoverished émigré poet living in Berlin, who dreams of the book he will someday write--a book very much like The Gift itself.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful gift........2007-09-26

Nabokov, in his foreword, states that The Gift "is the last novel I wrote, or ever shall write, in Russian. Whether the author knew this as a certainty when he was writing this novel or if the conscious decision to eschew his native language for future literary endeavors came later, he, nevertheless, produced what would be his most "Russian" work. The beginning of the novel is a tip of the hat to Gogol's Dead Souls while the last paragraph is his homage to Pushkin's Eugene Onegin; and throughout the book there are references to Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky (deridingly) and the literary favorite of Lenin, Nikolay Chernyshevski. Now, before the prospective reader throws up their hands and bemoans a lack of background in Russian literature for an excuse not to read this book, be assured. This is one of Nabokov's most uplifting novels and is essentially a love story; that it contains some of the author's best prose (in either Russian or English) only adds to the reading pleasure. And although there are obvious influences from Proust and Joyce (the circular format of the Chernyshevski chapter, for example), this is not, as Amazon reviewer David K. O'Hara remarked, "bloody Finnegan's Wake."

The Gift is the story of Fyodor Gudunov-Cherdyntsev, an emigre writer living in Berlin, and represents Nabokov's contribution to the "portrait of the artist" literary genre. In most of the works in this category much is said regarding the artist's angst, inspiration and triumphs but very little of the artist's actual writings are given for the reader's consideration. Not so with this book - the reader has the actual texts of the works at hand. Thus, we are able to read Fyodor's first published book of poetry (as well as the imagined critical responses) concerning his memories of life in Russia before the Revolution; an unpublished biography of his father, a famous naturalist, and his adventures in Asia as he undertakes expeditions to describe the fauna and flora of exotic lands, seemingly oblivious of the political upheaval taking place back home in Russia -- this section of the novel contains some of Nabokov's most beautiful writing. Finally, in an attempt to deal with what he sees as the mediocrity of Soviet letters and the stagnation of the emigre literary scene, Fyodor sets out to write a biography of the great pragmatist, confused socialist, and almost unreadable author, Nikolay Chernyshevski. That Chernyshevski was a particular favorite of Lenin and exerted enough influence that he was regarded as one of the "intellectual" catalysts for Lenin's activism and the subsequent Bolshevik revolution (and the reason, in the end, for Fyodor's emigre status) only made him grist for Fyodor's sardonic talents.

Although Nabokov enjoys getting into the head of his emigre protagonist, he is too shrewd a writer to simply give his readers a word by word transcription of Fyodor's literary efforts. Woven through the novel and connecting the literary efforts of Fyodor is the story of his love affair with Zina Mertz, a fellow emigre with whom he strikes up a clandestine relationship. She makes her appearance halfway through the novel (Fyodor hears her flush the toilet in the rooming house they share), but the careful reader will discover that she has been on the periphery of Fyodor's world from the first chapter. Several times they are almost brought together but some twist of fate keeps them in their separate orbits. It is only as Fyodor grows as an artist that he is ready for a relationship with Zina and the sharing of his emotions and intellect with her. It is through his love for Zina that Fyodor has the determination to re-examine his previous attempt at his biography of his father and, in so doing, sees the great book that was waiting for him to write: a book documenting his literary achievements and his love for Zina, a book which would be a gift in appreciation of all that life had granted him -- this very book that the reader holds in his hands.

Nabokov almost always discourages any attempts to see himself in the roles of the characters he invents, to "identify the designer with the design." But while Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev might not be a manifestation of Nabokov, there is a similarity in the idea of this novel as a gift. Just a Fyodor offered his gift to Zina for the happiness she brought into his life, so did Nabokov dedicate The Gift to his wife, Vera, as a means of thankfulness that their marriage had survived a rocky period.

Nabokov's Gift; Is it worth the elegant prose?.......2006-05-02

Nobokov's The Gift is an interesting work. I am unsure whether it is due to the haste with which I read it, or the nature of the book itself, but I found that while some sections were enticing, not only in style, but also in content, entire sections seemed unrelated and uninteresting. I frequently found myself engaged in the action, but often found myself unable to recall what I had just been reading for the previous 40 pages. While I enjoyed many sections, this ebb and flow made it difficult for me to concentrate on the full picture and I sometimes found myself frustrated with reading.

Nabokov's prose however was always beautiful, regardless of my feelings toward the plot elements. Even in those sections entirely devoid of other interest, I always found the prose captivating. Thus there are innumerable quotable passages, each of which glides smoothly across the tongue or through the ear. It is this ability with prose which made the seemingly mundane life of a butterfly collector come alive with the adventurous nature of many heroic explorers. The times where Fyodor recalls his father and his expeditions are undoubtedly my favorite part of the novel, they felt most personal and realistic, while other portions felt dry and rather uninteresting.

I found the first fifty pages especially dry, they read more like a book report or litererary analysis than a novel, continually interspersed with excerpts from his poetry which were then discussed for their merit in capturing or not capturing the desired sentiment. The following story of the boy who died, and the mother eager to speak with Fyodor about it, added interest and a more human aspect. While he seemed cold and removed, it is very easy to associate with his character, while it always feels fulfilling to help another person through difficult times, it often becomes burdensome and even boring when a tape recorder could easily have taken his place.

It is quite possible that a second reading would be beneficial, that it would make many of the connections that I have missed, but for now, I am more inclined to read other works of a less tedious nature.

For me, The Gift is an exercise in How prose means rather than What it means.

The Gift.......2006-05-01

To be honest, this is one of the hardest books that I have ever read. While it is impossible to deny the genius of Nabokov, it is a genius that exalts itself at the expense of everyone else. The entire time that I was reading the book, I felt that I would never be able to match Nabokov intellectually on any level. Every time that I felt I was beginning to understand what he was trying to convey, something would shift, and I would again be lost. I enjoyed the book, however, and I would recommend it to others, on the basis of its incredible use of language. The Gift has a lyrical quality to it that allows the novel to stand independently of its ideas at times. One is tempted to read it just to hear the way the words flow. It is an immensely frustrating book to read, but in the end it is well worth it.

The Gift.......2006-04-21

It would be hard not to recognize the genius of The Gift, yet I found that the book, especially in chapters 3 and 4, was a flippant display of "artist's egoism." Nabokov recognizes the greatness of his literature and taunts his audience with the irregular rhythm of his prose that muddles time and switches abruptly between the present and the metafictional. Although the prose is much too intelligent and artful to be called "stream of consciousness," I personally do not enjoy this kind of uninterrupted text, stretching paragraphs across pages. Much like Faulkner's work, there is an incredible amount of information jammed into the pages and it feels overwhelming rather than satisfying. I guess that it because as the reader, it is nice to feel "smart" and piece together certain puns, idiosyncrasies, ironies, and character developments that are formulaic in most novels-we all want to "figure out" the author and decipher his/her messages. In The Gift, I felt as if Nabokov was a bit heavy-handed with his masked metaphors and a lightly-drawn plot. I wanted something less ethereal and more concrete. I could rephrase all I just said colloquially and just say it-the book made me feel dumb. And who likes that?!

I think part of the reason this book was so hard to grasp was that it was a book about a book. Nabokov himself poses this idea in the introduction of the book, "its heroine is not Zina, but Russian literature." In metafiction, one has to ask, why would anyone write a book about a book? Instead of simply reading the book checked out of the library or bought at a bookstore, the audience is presented with an auxiliary work, set within the text of the primary work. The best way I can understand this idea is by examining Nabokov's obsession with catching butterflies. Mirroring Nabokov's own personal fascination with zoology and science, Fyodor's father is an avid lepidopteron and an eccentric adventurer. I saw this as an embodiment of Russian literature-capturing something free-floating, spiritual, and beautiful and then analyzing it, encasing it, and writing about it. Similar to Russian literature, Lepidoptery is a way for someone to explore the vast regions of their country, and study the natural and anthropomorphic changes occurring in these regions.

In this sense, the actual capturing of butterflies can also be seen as an illustration of western literary dominance and of the western novel form. As words and thoughts, just as monarchs and moths, are swept into the author's net, a certain kind of "literary colonization" occurs in which the dominant group asserts its power over the colonies. To Fyodor, his father was an embodiment of the Russian fatherland, and Fyodor was more enthralled by his father's butterfly collecting than he was of his father's stories which spoke of slaying lions in Byzantium, fighting in Syria, saving Icelanders from starvation, and sacking "80 fortresses in Africa." (106 Vintage Edition.) Both the delicacy and scientific prowess of butterfly-collecting fascinated Nabokov and Fyodor to the point of enchantment. Yet Fyodor's father is not a western crusader, but rather an enigma who "[sinks] on his haunches with a kind of Oriental ease" (108), and who's home is filled with Tibetan coins and wolf's tooth necklaces. I think this is the kind of literature that Nabokov is trying to produce-an esoteric hybrid of east-west, native-?migr?, and spiritual-scientific.

The fact that The Gift was written by Nabokov as German ex-pat at the onset of WWII is certainly significant. Similarly of note is the fact that Nabokov includes the Russian greats-Pushkin and Gogol-into his work. Any Russian reading The Gift would most likely be familiar with Pushkin and Gogol's works, but as an American, only slightly versed in Russian literature, I found the Chapters 2 & 3 very difficult. Nabokov has certainly directed his gaze at Russia with this book and perhaps it can be hailed as Nabokov's last truly Russian novel. After all, following The Gift, Nabokov wrote Lolita and spent a large amount of time living and traveling in America and Switzerland.

I believe that the "Russian qualities" of the book must be considered in order to fully understand it. I know much of my frustration with the book is because I do not understand many of the Russian national/historical/literary themes. Although Nabokov alludes to Shakespeare, Poe, and even Eastern wisdom, The Gift certainly pays homage to Russian literature and acts as creative political tribute to Russia. Like Fyodor, Nabokov wants to give his own gift to his countrymen-the gift of Russian literature. However, if Nabokov was targeting a Russian audience affected by the Stalin years and the widespread pandemonium of Hitler's Germany, he didn't offer them much. The Gift was not fully printed and permitted in Russia until after perestroika. So it must be asked, was The Gift truly a gift to Russia, or simply the memoir of a self-absorbed genius? I would say the later.

Personally, I found the book excruciating. But for those of you that love mind games, heady prose, and books like Finnegan's Wake and Doktor Faustus-read on!

The Gift.......2006-04-20

This book was very difficult to get through, yet I feel as if all of the effort was well worth it. I took the time to read it twice, as instructed by Nabokov himself, in order to fully capture in my mind the nuances of the novel. What struck me as most rewarding was the instances when I would pick up on these nuances and I almost felt a camaraderie with Nabokov. One part that really stood out for me was when the narrator, the main character, would speak about love, his sentences would almost imperceptibly become stanzas of rhyming poetry. When he spoke about his first love affair, and his love with Zina, the sentences would slip subtly into rhyme, one of many themes that weave in and out of Nabokov's master prose. It is at the moments when I pick up on these that I feel as if I am a little closer to understanding the genius that allowed Nabokov to be so egotistic about his work.

It is his genius that allows me to reccomend this book. The reward of reading and re-reading a work of such difficulty can seem slight, but in my opinion well worth the time and effort. Nabokov's sense of humor, his mastery of prose, his deeply intense knowledge of Russian authors, their styles, and their biographies all make this book something to cherish rather than to ignore and dismiss solely based upon the fact that it challenges the reader.

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Glorious
Exquisite
youthful illusion
A Hero of His Time
Death is inevitable

Glory
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679727248
Release Date: 1991-11-05

Book Description

Glory is the wryly ironic story of Martin Edelweiss, a twnety-two-year-old Russian émigré of no account, who is in love with a girl who refuses to marry him. Convinced that his life is about to be wasted and hoping to impress his love, he embarks on a "perilous, daredevil project"--an illegal attempt to re-enter the Soviet Union, from which he and his mother had fled in 1919. He succeeds--but at a terrible cost.

Customer Reviews:

Glorious.......2007-10-01

Glory is the comic/tragic tale of a young man whose fantasies of heroism come to replace reality and eventually lead to his downfall. The theme is simple, but because the novel is set between WWI and WWII, Glory might be best described as a somewhat cynical allegory about the plight of the "Lost Generation"--those ex-patriots who retreated to Paris during the 20s and 30s. Martin, our protagonist, while not an American in Paris, most certainly is lost. Having been forced into exile during the Russian Revolution, Martin, who is a highly Europeanized hybrid, finds himself adrift in Europe, wandering from Switzerland, to England, to Germany in an aimless pursuit of what to do with himself. Eventually he falls in love with the sulky, dark-eyed temptress, Sonia. But that, of course, solves nothing. Martin does not know who he is, where he has come from, or where he is going. Falling in love merely heightens his anomie.

If this sounds somewhat uninspiring as a plot, you are right! There is very little action of note, and even less character development (which, in any event, Nabokov disdained). The appeal of this book is the sheer force of Nabokov's gorgeous writing. His exquisite attention to detail, his amazing insights into states of mind set him above all other writers. Perhaps you think I am overstating, but who else can take you to a river in Cambridge, make you smell the air, see the sky, feel as Martin feels, so deftly, so economically and with such great sensitivity? Nabokov, a synthaesthete, has a chef's awareness of how to spice his novels. A dash of this, a hint of that - he knows which sensations to describe in order to create a harmonious whole. There are passages in this book which I read and re-read, astounded by the clarity, the precision, the sheer beauty of Nabokov's prose.

Glory is a literary delicacy, best savored slowly. Take your time consuming it, and you will be well-satisfied.

Exquisite.......2004-11-14

In spite of multinational references in the book, "Glory" is quintessentially American. Martin Edelweiss (22 years old) is as every bit American as Rabbit Angstrom or Benny Profane (22 and 23 respectively). The unremitting chiseling oneself out is more in character with Rocky Balboa than with Raskolnikov.

Martin is a bit of a Holden Caulfield, sensitive and highly original. But instead of defining himself as the negation of the surrounding world, Martin has an inner flame that carries him forth. Stepping off the train in the middle of nowhere in Provence, and settling there. Going back on the perilous cliff just to prove to himself that he could do it. Crossing a dangerous state frontier. Even washing himself daily from his ubiquitous collapsible bathtub. All these are emanations of Martin's spirit. And in the book he, the least purposeful one, is the only one possessing it. He is that miraculous lonely green branch sprouting out of a withered tree. The book, in fact, is no less radical than Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" in its assertion that only according to your peculiar self is it worth living. The theme is not new, but the variation on it is presented with remarkable elegance. Only the preface, narcissistic and supercilious, is regrettably dissonant with the rest of the book.

And, naturally, the language. What a beautiful serving, what a feast! It is a hillock of beaten egg whites, under the dappled sunlight of a linden tree alley, smiling at you with all the sun-ignited freckles of its icy crystals. Weightless and radiant, it is a young steed, now trotting, now galloping, but always having the air of freshness about it. As is typically with Nabokov's novels, the pace of the book seems maddeningly slow, until one surrenders to its flow and lets their senses resonate with its spell. Nabokov savors language like a wine connoisseur savors wine: lingering with it, swirling the words, slowly, slowly, until they reveal their intricate bouquet.

Nabokov's lightness of touch, akin to Pushkin's, makes reading his books irresistible, like reading the best books in childhood, the ones to which you had to run home after school just to indulge yourself more.

youthful illusion.......2004-02-13

This is a very good novel about the fantasies of youth, i.e. misplaced idealism, mixed with the dangers inherent in the revolutionary upheavals of the early 20C. It is a slice of history, which may interest or may not. As the novel is translated from the original Russian, it lacks the extraordinary narrative texture that the Nab's original English novels exhibit.

Recommended.

A Hero of His Time.......2003-12-06

This novel was first published in Russian in 1932 and was much later translated into English by the author and his son Dimitri. In his interesting introduction to the book, Nabokov states that his original working title was "Romanticheskiy Vek", or "Romantic Times"; this was later changed to "Podvig", which can be translated as "gallant feat" or "exploit".

The hero of the book is Martin Edelweiss, a young Russian of Swiss ancestry. Like Nabokov's own family, Martin and his mother are forced to leave Russia following the Communist revolution of 1917, and take refuge in Switzerland, where Martin's mother marries his Uncle Henry, a cousin of his late father. Martin is sent to be educated in Cambridge; after graduating, he refuses to find a profession for himself, but travels around Europe, taking casual employment in Berlin and the south of France. The book ends with Martin performing the "exploit" of the Russian title, a clandestine crossing of the Soviet border from Latvia, but the ultimate outcome of this deed is left obscure.

Nabokov's two Russian titles for the work are both significant. Martin is a man of artistic temperament but without artistic gifts. He is bored and restless, something he has in common with the "superfluous men" of earlier Russian literature, such as Eugene Onegin or Pechorin from Lermontov's "Hero of our Times" (a novel Nabokov translated). (There is also, possibly, an echo of their obsession with duelling and honour in the rather ridiculous boxing match between Martin and his Cambridge friend Darwin). There are, however, important differences between Martin and these earlier anti-heroes. Their restlessness and boredom lead them into cynical, callous nihilism; Martin's lead him into a search for sense of purpose, something he remains optimistic about finding. As another reviewer has put it, he sees life as a "series of romantic possibilities." Whereas their sense of purposelessness is internal, arising from something in their characters, Martin's is external, deriving from his situation as an involuntary exile, cut off from his country by political events. It is notable that when he goes to Cambridge he chooses to study Russian literature and culture, rejecting Henry's advice that he should follow a vocational course. Memories of his childhood take on great importance for him; he chooses, for example, to live and work for a time in a particular French town because of the (mistaken) belief that it was the town whose lights he once briefly glimpsed during a night-time train ride as a boy.

Although the story is told in the third person, it is similar to a first-person narrative in that the whole of the action (except the last few pages after he has disappeared) is told as it appears to the central character. One of the most striking features of the work is the vividness of its descriptions of the physical world. Whether the scene is set in the Crimea, Greece, Switzerland, Cambridge, Berlin or Provence, there are plentiful references (at times in almost every sentence) to not only the sights of the locality but also to its sounds, smells, tastes and sensations. Martin is highly sensitive to the beauty of the world around him (something else, incidentally, that he shares with Pechorin)- lights seem from a train, the moon shining on the sea, a jay flying through blue sky above a snow-covered forest, or the scents of a Crimean summer.

Because Martin is so much at the centre of the book, the other characters are less prominent, although there are one or two sharp portraits- Uncle Henry, whose cautious pragmatism contrasts with Martin's romanticism, Martin's first love, the married Decadent poetess Alla Chernosvitova, Sonia Zilanova, the fickle, flirtatious daughter of another émigré family with whom he later conducts an on-off romance, and Darwin. (Darwin, incidentally, is not a fop, as some have called him. "Fop" seems an odd word to use about a winner of the Victoria Cross, and he often seems more practical and down to earth than Martin himself).

The motivation for Martin's "gallant feat" is left as obscure as its outcome. Was it some secret mission on behalf of his fellow émigrés? A desire for adventure? An attempt to impress Sonia? Nostalgia for his native land? Simple bravado? Nabokov provides no definitive answer to this question. Unlike some other reviewers, however, I did not find that the book was spoilt for me by the deliberately vague ending. In literature, as in life, mystery and ambiguity can be as interesting as precision and hard fact. Certainly, "Glory" is not a novel of the traditional sort, with a well-rounded plot with a beginning, a middle and an end, and should not be read as such. The fun of "Glory" lies elsewhere (to quote its author in a different context). The sensuous prose and the memorable portrait of a romantic young man in an age when romanticism was perhaps not in fashion make this a superb novel.

Death is inevitable.......2002-09-20

"Russia is our Motherland. Death is inevitable". - Epigraph to "The Gift", another Nabokov's novel.

Why did Martin Edelweiss march off towards his glory?

The complete population of Nabokov's novel - Martin's mother, his uncle, his best friend, his lady acquaintance (Sonya is not really his girlfriend, is she?), her relatives, the adventurous Gruzinov, unafraid to boldly go into blood-soaked Soviet Russia through secret passageways - all of them cannot find an answer to this question.

But let's rephrase it. Could Martin *not* march off towards his glory?

Strictly speaking, yes. Should Sonya agree to come to Provence and lead a peaceful rustic life with him, among snakes, heat and garlic. But she had refused, and Martin ran out of options.

He couldn't really spend his life working as a tennis coach in Berlin, throwing balls to elderly pupils - the balls he so deftly held in his hand, five at once.

Nabokov gave to Martin the precious droplets of his own experience, something that was called the happiest childhood of Russian literature. He gave him the anglophile tradition, the old Cambridge ramparts, the glow of Riviera sand, the hot afternoon hours of Southern France, the smell of petrol in Berlin. He allowed him to lose his virginity easily and happily - before that, all Russian classical writers had bashfully neglected this crucial moment - probably none of them happened to be so lucky as Martin. Who else in Russian literature dared sleep with a prostitute with a feeling of such freshness and vigour, and no remorse at all? There is no overlapping in Martin's sexual and romantic life; tough luck, sure; but in contrast to a multitude of other Russian fictional characters, he does not turn it into a tragedy, or renounce both in a fit of despair.

Having endowed his hero with nobleness, health, intellect, sense of humour, Nabokov did not give him any vocation. Martin never wrote anything longer than a postcard. Butterflies flip-flap their wings around him from time to time, but not a single one is given a name in the novel. He plays tennis well enough, but still he's only an amateur; he doesn't seem to play chess at all. In Cambridge, at first, he wants to do everything, but then he chooses the easy way and goes into Slavic studies, losing an excellent tutor on the way because of the latter's sexual preferences (squeamish, isn't he). Nabokov consistently denies his creation all of his own great passions. Even Martin's university studies are only mentioned fleetingly; they are not of real interest to anyone, to Martin himself in particular.

Martin with a gift - that is the character of Nabokov's later novel, "The Gift", the writer Godunov-Tscherdyntsev. His future fiancée would have dog-eared the book of his poetry before even meeting him. But what is left to Martin, who does not write any poetry? "Without a profession, he'll go nuts", says uncle Heinrich.

Book Description

The story of Nabokov's life continues with his arrival in the United States in 1940. He found that supporting himself and his family was not easy--until the astonishing success of Lolita catapulted him to world fame and financial security.

Customer Reviews:

Probably the definitive Nabokov biography for years to come.......2004-05-18

The man himself once said, "Biographies are generally fun to write, less fun to read." The implication is that the person who authors the biography becomes so immersed in the life of their subject that biographies end up being labors of love. However, take that biography and assign it to a student...

I would have to say that this two-volume biography of Nabokov is the mathematical proof that disproves the formula above. Boyd plays the role of historian/biographer, spending time explaining the political scene of Russia early on in N's life, and traces the movements of the most significant person in N's first twenty years; his father. Of course, this is probably out of necessity considering his father's position in the whole political mish-mash that was fin-de-siecle Russia. I might gripe and say that there's too much attention paid to the politics, but that's because I'm an English major, not a historian or a politician, and I'm reading for pleasure. Were I reading for a thesis, these excerpts would be invaluable.

I'm thrilled about the chapters of Russian emigre life in Europe following the Bolshevik Revolution. Not only does it trace the influence that wafts through N's early stuff (and follows through his life), but it also gives us a taste of the climate of those years, plus a roster of sorts of who was part of that microcosm. This is going to be, in my estimation, a highly researched period of literature, once it becomes fashionable that is, and this biography will be a resource for all those students looking for a glimpse into that world. Studies in Nabokov are really beginning to blossom, and this will spur interest in that era as well.

N's life is portrayed as an emerging talent, rather than a natural genius who could command language and characters as well at 20 as at 70. This humanizes Nabokov, a figure who can sometimes seem a little god-like to his devotees. Expelling mist and myth is the mark of a good biography, next to joyously reporting the life of the subject. The analysis provided by Boyd in the sections dealing with early literature (such as the comparative criticism of his first novel "Mary" and the story "Return of Chorb") is revealing in this case because he can explain what Nabokov lacks here, or does not do so well early on.

Extensive references and a collection of satisfying photographs complete the package. One of the best photos being a shot of the Rohzdestveno manor that Nabokov inherited from his Uncle Vasily at age 17. A 17 year-old with his own mansion. Can you say harem?

Great book- Even better than Nabokov himself, at times.......2003-04-12

Having read what little Nabokov anyone has read (Lolita) I exchanged this book for a Bogart biography I received as birthday present. I was hooked and, having read the whole book through in a few days, I bought the second volume and I wasn't let down. The book is a jewel and Nabokov becomes almost as close an acquaintance of the reader as Johnson became per Boswell's book.

The elegiac childhood that Nabokov enjoyed as the son of an upper class family of political liberals and Russian patriots is hard to imagine given the awfulness of Russian history since the 1905. After the death of his grandfather Nabokov became a millionaire at age 10. His family was close knit and loving (which may explain his deep love for his wife Véra and his son Dmitri, named after Vladimir's father). The Nabokovs managed to escape Russia from their Crimean summer house and eventually ended up in Germany, where they endured hardship and persecution. Nabokov's father, who had been an Education Minister during Kerensky's brief democratic administration, was murdered by an extreme-nationalist from the "Black Hundreds", a paramilitary organisation. Amazingly, Nabokov never bored to learn German although he lived in Germany for twenty years because he felt German would destroy his gift for Russian. His French was flawless, though (he died in French Switzerland). His meeting of the beautiful, brilliant Véra is touching, a rare moment of perfection on this cursed globe, and they became a very close couple. Mrs Nabokov was much more than a wife: she was a soul-mate and a loving collaborator in all Nabokov's efforts. Nabokov, in spite of his poverty managed to continue to live with aristocratic non-chalance and was always able to afford extensive and elaborate holidays that nowadays are only possible for the very well-to-do. The book ends as the Nabokovs and young Dmitri move to America, barely escaping France before the German invasion. Better times were yet to come, and they are aptly told in the second volume.

Most of the books Nabokov wrote in this period were in Russian and thus they have not been as widely divulged as his books in English. I can't appreciate their quality, not reading Russian, but Boyd notes many references of experts which regarded them as some of the best writing in Russian in the 20th century, and more deserving of a Nobel prize than either Pasternak or Solzhenitzn.

The title of my review will probably be deplored by many Nabokov fans, but in fact I was deeply attracted to Nabokov's elegance, charm and tolerance, by his revulsion to snobbery (he was always annoyed by some Europeans' disdain for US culture or some Russian emigrés' disgust at the accent of Jewish Russian speakers), by his unerring political sense that led him to distrust most extremisms of the last century (he was one of the few important authors not to have written blatant political nonsense), and very much enjoyed his curious interest in butterflies (his fantasy of a lavish, multi-volume Encyclopedia of butterflies of the Russian Empire smacks of Borges to me), and his extensive work at Harvard concerning them (he does have a species to his name). Boyd's descriptions led to me seek Nabokov's literal translation of Pushkin's epical poem, Eugene Onegin (I found the translation unreadable, as many people have), and, in spite of Boyd's wonderful summaries, I couldn't really get into some of Nabokov' other works in English (Ada or Ardor and Pale Fire I thought too modernist for my taste- his literary criticism was great, although I winced at his evident distaste for Jane Austen- and shared his love for Dickens). But Nabokov is as great a writer as he as a biographer's subject, and Boyd's book is probably the best literary biography after The Life of Johnson. I heartily recommend it (it's great even if you haven't actually read Nabokov).

One of the best biographies I've ever read.......2001-12-22

Brian Boyd's scope and research in this book are just outstanding. I'm not usually that interested in biographies of writers, often the biographer does not relate their life to their literature in a way that interests me, but Nabokov is one of my favorite writers, so I thought I'd give this book a try. First you should note that it is a huge book that spans a large time frame, but you shouldn't be put off by the size, because Boyd's prose is very succinct and the chapters are manageable. It's clear to me that he appreciates Nabokov's works, as the best chapters are the ones detailing the periods of time when Nabokov is writing his works. There is so much great background information to be found here, that Nabokov wrote on index cards, the road trips that influenced Lolita, and Nabokov's relationship with his wife, Vera. This is what literary biographies should be like. I highly recommend this to any fans of Nabokov who want to learn more about his life and his writing.

Brilliant.......2000-08-31

Both volumes of this set are excellent. This is the way literary biography should be done. It's so good, in fact, that you wouldn't necessarily have to be a huge Nabokov fan to want to read both books. (Of course, I am a diehard Nabokovian, so I raced through them even more eagerly.) Bravo to Brian Boyd.

The Biography Nabokov Deserves!.......2000-07-04

In my review of Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, I say that "I am grateful to Boyd for his serious scholarship, his lively prose, and his close analysis of Nabokov's oeuvre." That comment applies wholeheartedly to this volume as well.

As a professor of literature at Cornell, Nabokov taught his students to focus on the details of literature. He taught them that the small details of a fictional world were far more important than broad generalizations about literary trends. One infamous midterm question asked the students to describe the wallpaper in a character's bedroom--a description that was only provided in a single line of the novel. Nabokov believed that good readers paid attention to details like this, and specific, startling detail was what made reality beautiful. I think Nabokov would have approved of Boyd's detailed, beautiful biography.

Boyd is a good Nabokovian. He sees the details of Nabokov's life and presents them to us vividly. He also analyzes the details of Nabokov's work, and provides us with lucid, and often surprising, readings and interpretations's of Nabokov's novels.

In The American Years Boyd reminds us why Nabokov was once hailed as perhaps the greatest writer of the latter half of the 20th Century. And after staying up all night to finish the enthralling story of Nabokov's life, I would have to say that Boyd is right.