Nabokov, Vladimir

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I'll hear Irons in my sleep for some time to come
Overrated, perhaps?
One of the greatest of the 20C
One of the most enthralling and provocative novels of all time
Words to play with

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

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ASIN: 0679723161
Release Date: 1989-03-13

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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: <blockquote> 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. </blockquote> 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:

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.

Overrated, perhaps?.......2007-06-12

Maybe this book was just too hyped up before I read. Maybe I came to the book with my expectations to high, but I think this book is overrated. I found most of the book to be repetitive and redundant. I understand the author is trying to show the level of obsession that the narrator has, but the book bogs down as he uses page after page after page after page to drive this obsession down our throats. It really disturbs the flow of the book, and I found it to be irritating after page after page after page.

I've heard this book billed as the greatest love story ever told, but come on, does anyone really buy that? I didn't even find the story all that shocking. Others have done similar things, perhaps they didn't devote an entire book to man on child loving, but it has been done. How far does shock value really go any way?

I will give him credit that the book does have something to say of the human condition, and when the writing is not repetitive it is good, possibly sneaking up on very good in places. I found myself enjoying about 280 pages.

I also liked evolution of the main characters, but none of this was able to redeem the book in the end. How about I give him the title of the greatest author of a book about pedophilia (perhaps a dubious distinction but a distinction none the less) ever written? I will now humbly accept my bashing from those who believe that I have just blasphemed against the best book ever. Bash away.

One of the greatest of the 20C.......2007-05-29

I recall when I read this in college and was thunderstruck by the imagery, the allusions, and the bizarre humor. For years, it stood out in my mind as one of the greatest novels I had ever read, and it started me on a binge of Nabokov reading of novels that never quite equalled this one. So it was with great anticipation that I re-opened after over 30 years from the first reading. I am happy to say that, as with all truly great works of art, my experience of it today was completely different than my initial one. That, for me, is the mark of great literature: there are innumerable possible readings and ways to see it and put it together as a reflection of reality: it grows along with one's mind and in accordance with one's experience. As such, it is an endless resource for the imagination.

This time around, I did not see it as a book about obsessive love, but about a very sick man trying to control a young person absolutely, to conform to the images and needs of a deteriorating mind. While learned and funny, HH is a horrible person and is twisting Lolita at a crucial point in her early adolescence, damaging her permanently. It is sad and frightening, pathetic and full of despair amidst spurts of (never smutty) ecstacy.

Beyond the incredible intricacy of the plot - a patchwork of clues and deadends - what is a great wonder is the consistent texture of the language, which radiates confusion, lack of direction, and alcoholic depression. SLowly, HH loses his grip on reality and begins to live in a nightmare of dissolution, nihilism, and pain.

This is so good and rich that it will live forever as a classic, with all the layers of Stendahl or Joyce, but written in the Nab's inimitable style. It occured to me that a friend of mine described the Nab's work perfectly: none of the characters, he said, ever feel normal emotions. What the Nab gives us is a way to feel and see these things, all while toying with the reader and occasionally misleading them. It is incredible how different the Nab's books are from eachother, each with some strange, unimaginable central character and HH is perhaps his best.

I will have to read this again...every time, one sees more, makes more connections. If you can stand it.

Recommended with enthusiasm.

One of the most enthralling and provocative novels of all time.......2007-05-19

Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" is one of the most interesting pieces of writing in all the world of literature. It's beautiful prose and highly cerebral--not to mention likeable--main character lends an air of sophistication to the work, a sophistication which effectually raises the novel above and beyond its touchy subject matter.

I myself must admit that I was put off at first by the subject matter of the novel. A story where the main character is a habitual pedophile is something most readers would turn down in a heartbeat. However, you would be remiss in turning this novel down.

Humbert Humbert, Nabokov's main character, is tormented by nymphets (young girls). Although a pedophile, Humbert Humbert is--as is realized unexpectedly as you swiftly flow through the 300+ pages of the novel--likeable. Many would cringe at the prospect of siding with a pedophile, but the fact is, while reading "Lolita" the reader can do nothing but love Humbert for his cynical remarks and passionate behavior.

The story of "Lolita", in essence, is a love story unlike any other. Humbert Humbert pursues the affection of a young girl, which ends in a deep, sickeningly satisfying way. And like all love stories, this tale has its fair share of twists and turns along the way.

From the first sentence, this novel grasps the reader by the hand and carries him or her through the escapades of Humbert Humbert. Not only is it a fast read, but it is also highly addictive. Despite the touchy subject matter, the reader feels compelled to return to "Lolita" again and again. This novel speaks to our fascination with the grotesque. Much like (excuse the terrible analogy) the way our eyes remain glued to the scene of a horrible car crash, the reader's eyes seemingly ache to return to this clever novel and see what happens next.

Although the subject matter of "Lolita" is taboo in today's society, it is a novel that no true literature enthusiast should miss. Truly this is one of the greatest novels in all of literature. All readers should read this novel at one point in their lives.

Words to play with.......2007-05-17

Early in the book, Humbert Humbert, the narrator of this story of sexual obsession, writes: "Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!" And again, towards the end, "I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art." Passion recreated in words; passion that can only be assuaged by more words. Words -- but there is nothing that Nabokov can not do with them.

When I first read this book 50 years ago, buying a banned copy in Paris, it was frankly for titillation; its pornography was oblique, to be sure, but to an adolescent with no experience whatever, it seemed to open a whole world. And the fact that Lolita was so very young was scarcely shocking to a reader not that much older. Now 50 years on, I have a daughter of my own, and Humbert Humbert's nympholepsy appears as the horror that it is. But LOLITA is more titillating than ever -- only verbally, not sexually. Solely by the use of words, Nabokov keeps you reading, through the horror, through the dread, drawing you in, stirring your sympathies, moving irresitably towards a conclusion that is clear from the beginning, even though reached by an upredictable path. Despite everything Nabokov does to reveal his hand (even writing a preface explaining what will happen to the characters after the story ends), this is more suspenseful than any suspense story. Despite having a psychopath for a hero, it says much about normal human psychology. It is a perfect time-capsule of postwar America, satirical but gently so. It is a virtuoso feat of linguistic juggling, a witty paean to the English language. It is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977

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Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940-1971, Revised and Expanded Edition
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ASIN: 0156936100

Amazon.com

If Vladimir Nabokov's fiction merits any criticism, it is for its iciness. The master himself declared in a 1977 BBC interview, "My characters cringe as I come near them with my whip. I have seen a whole avenue of imagined trees losing their leaves at the threat of my passage." Nabokov's correspondence, however, reveals a far warmer individual, though one ever-ready with a verbal shiv. This volume begins with a 1923 letter to his mother, written while he was a farmhand in the French Alps, and ends with a 1977 letter sent to his wife, Vera, for Mother's Day: "My dearest, your roses, your fragrant rubies, glow red against a background of spring rain..."

Nabokov's son, Dmitri, and Matthew Bruccoli have created the fullest, and by far the most amusing, portrait of the serious artist as trickster. There's the famous letter to Burma-Vita, in which Nabokov offers the company an advertising jingle (alas, they turned him down). There's the best, and most amusing, account of "l'affaire Lolita." Here is his response to his New Yorker editor, Katharine White: "Let me thank you very warmly for your frank and charming letter about LOLITA. But after all how many are the memorable literary characters whom we would like our teen-age daughters to meet? Would you like our Patricia to go on a date with Othello? Would we like our Mary to read the New Testament temple against temple with Raskolnikov? Would we like our sons to marry Emma Rouault, Becky Sharp or La belle dame sans merci?"

In another letter, however, he takes care to thank White for a "chubby check." (One wishes this phrase had gained greater circulation.) Nabokov again and again comes off as a difficult author, challenging his publishers left, right, and center over issues large (and there were many) and as well as those that were niggling. Calling the British paperback cover of Laughter in the Dark "atrocious, disgusting, and badly drawn besides having nothing to do whatever with the contents of the book," he tells his U.K. publisher, "I would appreciate if you would use your influence and have them substitute a pretty dark-haired girl, or a palmtree, or a winding road, or anything else for this tasteless abomination." Still, one is most often convinced that he's right, even when he makes the large claim that the French film Les Nymphettes infringes on his rights, "since this term was invented by me for the main character in my novel Lolita."

Not only is this volume endlessly quotable, it also reads like a great epistolary novel--fraught with high thought, high drama, and the delightfully unexpected. Who would have guessed that Nabokov would ask Hugh Hefner, "Have you ever noticed how the head and ears of your Bunny resemble a butterfly in shape, with an eyespot on one hindwing?"

Book Description

Over four hundred letters chronicle the author's career, recording his struggles in the publishing world, the battles over "Lolita," and his relationship with his wife.

Average customer rating:

Essential Reading
If Satan took up literature, he'd write like Nabokov...
Lo. Li. Ta.
Astounding Command of the English Language
The Ultimate Narcissist

Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140264078

Customer Reviews:

Essential Reading.......2007-05-06

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Nabokov writes great prose, and actually twists your mind into thinking what Humbert is doing is not really all that wrong. It makes you sick, but you start to feel for Humbert. It's a fantastic read, even if you think you already know the story, or if you've seen one of the movies. This is am amazing book, one that I would recommend to everyone.

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[...]. 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 [....]
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.

Lo. Li. Ta........2007-03-17

Nabokov's Lolita is simply an incredible book.

Humbert Humbert is infatuated with 'nymphets', oddly beautiful girls aged 9-14. Upon arriving in the United States, he lodges with Charlotte Haze; he takes the lodging after spotting Charlotte's nymphet daughter Delores (Lolita). In order to stay close to Delores he weds Charlotte, who is in love with him. Due to tragic circumstances sometime later, Humbert claims Delores and the duo embark on an extensive road trip across the states.

The voice of humbert is so intriguing - Nabokov has created a narrator that is depraved, yet intelligent and somehow sympathetic. His depravity and awful behavior is often forgotten or ignored because of Humbert's incredible wit, charm, taste and physical beauty; Humbert Humbert is successful in gaining sympathy and amity for his narrative is magnificent and loaded with intellectual and cultural references that are often both smart and humorous.

Due to Nabokov's eloquent, intelligent and much layered prose, Lolita is one of the greatest, most tragic yet strangest love stories of all time. A beautiful book.

Astounding Command of the English Language.......2007-03-14

This is an amazing book. As I read it, I realized how powerful language can be, because Nabokov bedazzles you with his story. You feel yourself going along with his main character's opinions/justifications as he ingratiates himself in Delores' mother's life, seduces Delores.... even when you know that what he's doing is wrong/illegal/unethical.

Most people can't write this well in their FIRST language. From what I understand, English is Nabakov's third!

Be prepared to be disturbed by this story, even as you wonder at how well it's told. After reading, I started to understand how people can be led astray by charletons.

The Ultimate Narcissist.......2006-12-01

Narkissos saw his image reflected on the surface of a pond, fell madly in love with what he saw, dived into the pond to consummate the apparition and promptly turned into a flower (i.e., the narcissus). This is why we say the narcissistic personality is in love with himself. And in real life, he operates that way. Come on now. You know what we are talking about. We all know a smarty pants when we see one.
The narcissist is never wrong. He is so spoiled, he expects to be given whatever he wants no matter what it means to others. He can be demanding and indignant if he is not treated the way he thinks he deserves. He is arrogant, haughty, snobbish, and downright bitchy. Even when he knows he is being outrageously pretentious, grandiose and entitled, he expects admiration, attention, recognition and VIP treatment. That's just the way he is. But under all that puffery, he is a vulnerable child. His self-esteem is extremely fragile. Despite his fantasies, (Yes, dear reader, fantasy. Or, do you also believe Nabokov wrote Annabelle Lee and not Poe?), he actually does know that he is an overbearing little twit. Indeed, he has become an expert at practicing "extreme twitness" so as to test those around him. But, here's the rub. Just because he's a twit, does that also make him a pedophile? I don't think so.

The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated

Average customer rating:

Adds a new dimension to a novel I admired already
If Satan took up literature, he'd write like Nabokov
Good story, bad annotaions
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

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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:

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.

Good story, bad annotaions.......2007-03-12

My one star is for the annotations in The Annotated Lolita. Do yourself a favor and buy a different edition. Mr Appel is a fan boy of the worst sort. His annotations are frequently long, off topic and silly. He assumes you have read Lolita two or three times already and contently spools the story by discussing what is about to happen. I soon stopped reading the annotations, except for the French translations.

Lolita is a well written novel and I do recommend reading it, just not this edition.

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:

Nabokov's king is a queen...
it's a wild ride
My favorite novel, err..book..err...literary work, or whatever!
Pale Fire
A tour de farce

Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Pnin (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)
Speak, Memory (Penguin Modern Classics)
Invitation to a Beheading
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated

ASIN: 0679723420
Release Date: 1989-04-23

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

In Pale Fire Nabokov offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures: a 999-line poem by the reclusive genius John Shade; an adoring foreword and commentary by Shade's self-styled Boswell, Dr. Charles Kinbote; a darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and one-upmanship, and political intrigue.

Customer Reviews:

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 the 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.

A tour de farce.......2006-12-12

Nabokov was one of the wittiest, most elegant writers of English prose of the 20th century. That's remarkable - his native language was Russian. He's probably best known to English language readers for his novel, "Lolita," but I think that "Pale Fire" is his masterpiece. It's just plain brilliant.

"Pale Fire" is something of a literary platypus. It isn't a novel, it isn't autobiographical, it isn't prose or poetry. It has elements of all of them while being none of them. It's completely original. It's a farce and a satire, a skewering of academia, a riff on the pretentiousness of professors, a slam of postmodernism before many people were even talking about that academic development. In spirit its closest modern relatives are Alan Sokal's fraudulent 1996 article (parody) in the journal "Social Text" and a sendup of MLA procedings in "Postmodern Pooh." It consists of a foreward, a poem in four cantos, commentary, and an index. It's all supposedly written by an apparently demented academic, Charles Kinbote, except for the poem, written by his former colleague (and object of both child-like and sexual desire?), John Shade.

We learn more about Kinbote in his work about Shade's poem than we learn about the poem or its author. As far as Kinbote is concerned, everything is about him - the poem, academic intrigue, revolution in his homeland, everything. His analysis of the poem is almost an exercise in solipsism - he sees and discourses on himself at every turn. And thus, I think, was Nabokov's view of American English departments - collections of talentless, naval-gazing frauds.

This book isn't just a satire of university English departments. It's also a mystery and a puzzle, pulling us into the world of Kinbote and feeding us clues about the place so that we can form a picture of it, understand why Shade is dead and Kinbote is holed-up in a motel to finish his commentary. But it isn't a book about a mystery. It's just a really strange book, and just plain brilliant.

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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

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Pale Fire
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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:

Lolita, Overrated?
Still stirs the imigination after all these years.
"Lolita, light of my life...."
One of the 20th centuries finest literary expeditions...
The Other Half of the Book

Lolita (Everyman's Library Classics)
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Ulysses
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ASIN: 185715133X

Customer Reviews:

Lolita, Overrated?.......2007-05-16

Lolita was one of those books in which I looked forward to reading for a long time. However, much to my regret I was disappointed.

The author is obviously highly talented and his word play is often nothing short of gorgeous. The narrative is at first, highly amusing and interesting and even touching at certain points.
In fact, I was quite enchanted by the first chapter in which Humbert describes his relationship with Anabelle. Also, the early passages of Lolita herself are quite wonderful. The problems arise when Humbert finally gets what he has always dreamed about.

The error lies in the fact that the book seems to be nothing but descriptions, and I often found myself drifting away and having to search for an actual action to have occured. Rather then putting in as much word play as possible, actual structure would allow the reader to appreciate what is described. And fascinating as it read an outsider's view of America on the road, when it goes on for several pages it becomes very tired.
The main character himself begins to become a one trick pony and I became bored with his endless rambling and self pity. Mind you I do not expect to fall in love with a molestor but I can only handle so much of his whining.

All in all, in excerpts of any part of Lolita is gorgeous. However when it is all meshed together it becomes tiresome and a chore.

Still stirs the imigination after all these years........2007-04-25

Maybe Lolita should come in a plain brown jacket given how much controversy this novel has generated over the years. Yet, it remains at the top of most critics' lists of the best books of the 20th century because the story remains as fresh as ever. While most people choose to remember little Lo, it is through the twisted mind of Humbert Humbert that we got to know this mischievous nymphet who repeatedly roused the lustful protagonist to the point of ecstasy only to foil him at almost every turn. There are countless interpretations of this novel, and Nabokov chose to remain coy about his subject matter, providing a third person foreward and a short afterward. One can gain more insight reading the Annotated Lolita by Alfred Appel, but why spoil the fun! Indulge in these carnal delights as Nabokov takes the reader on a wild ride across America, not once but twice, as Humbert revels in his lust for Lolita. However, the real thrill comes from Nabokov's rich language, the clever plot twists, and the way he cunningly pries into our subconscious, making us all complicit in Humbert's crimes of passion.

"Lolita, light of my life....".......2007-04-16

Eccentric. Passionate. Ultimately tragic. If books were men, "Lolita" would be my soulmate. As previous reviewers have so eloquently conveyed, Vladamir Nabokov was a ridiculously talented writer who so beautifully and seamlessly spun a tale of love and obsession. Oh, the obsession. It's the heart of the story. It's twisted and horrible, the things Humbert Humbert does, but you're drawn into his story the way you are to a train wreck. Ahh, just read it. You can't go wrong with it. Even if you don't have much stomach for pervy older men lusting after nymphets, read it for the prose. No one can write about mad-driven by obsession like Nabokov.

One of the 20th centuries finest literary expeditions..........2007-02-15

Introducing Humbert Humbert or H.H. - one of the strangest characters in all of literature.. A man obsessed.. and blinded by love..
Nabokov's prose just drips with tantalising beauty.. he captures the psychology of a man so well.. as to leave us feeling like we have just totally inhabited someone's mind.. It is disturbing, sure, but also thought provoking and thouroughly engrossing..
Strangely this is not a book about child abuse or a tale of morality.. It is the story of love and what it does to the brain... How we are so overtaken by our emotions as to blind us to everything else... This is truly an achievement few authors have made.. Only the likes of James Joyce could probe so deeply into the subconcious of such a character.. A work of genius..

The Other Half of the Book.......2007-02-14

`Lolita' brings to mind, of course, underage sexual abuse. But there is more to this story.

Most people love the beginning of the book, the set up and telling of something sordid. What we are given is the hunt, the build up before the climax in words so slick, so smooth, we almost nearly forget just what Humbert is describing, the sexualization of prepubescent children.

The second half of the story lets the readers down though, as Humbert loses his prize and his tenuous grip on reality.

By the time he confronts his only true rival for Lolita, the story telling becomes muddied and unclear. The reader is not certain whether they are being told the truth or only the reality as seen by Humbert Humbert.

One thing that will help the reader to understand the ending is the foreward by the pyschairtist, John Ray. At first, this section seems to be added onto the finished novel after several years. This foreward perhaps holds the basic key to understanding the story.

In the end, Humbert Humbert is more a child than 12 year old Lolita is. Humbert is the one who perpetually lives in a pubescent fantasy world.

I am utterly amazed at how well Nabokov understood the child molester's reasons and self delusions about their relationship with the abused.

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Ada, our ardors and arbors
Rich Characters
"by turns ecstatic and esoteric..."
huge fan of most V.N. but not this!
Life is somewhere else

Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

ASIN: 0679725229
Release Date: 1990-02-19

Book Description

Published two weeks after his seventieth birthday, Ada, or Ardor is one of Nabokov's greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest. But more: it is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. Ada, or Ardor is no less than the supreme work of an imagination at white heat.

This is the first American edition to include the extensive and ingeniously sardonic appendix by the author, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom.

Customer Reviews:

Ada, our ardors and arbors.......2007-05-24

"Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle", Nabokov's longest novel, is also, indisputably, his most involute. Without having read his entire oeuvre (nearly half-way through!) I can still assert this with confidence - and I'm sure most Nabokov fans would concur. Those who have read "Lolita" or "Pale Fire" will already be aware of the density of his writing, his penchant for allusions, puns, his rouguish tendency to deceive the reader. Some readers object to this; they like their prose "simple and sincere", easy to digest, as straightforward as possible. I would advise such readers to stay far, far away from this book.

I must concede, my first attempt wasn't a success. I got about half-way through before slamming it down in a frenzied rage (as I am wont to do). It was exhausting. "Nabokov has gone too far," I remember saying. But a few weeks later I had the strange urge to return to it, as if summoned by the characters. I'm glad I did - I'm glad they did.

Even for the Nabokov aficionado, accustomed to the density, "Ada..." proves startlingly abstruse. The first fifty pages in particular - in which he focuses on the genealogy of the family (the prefatory family tree is indispensible) and the Terra/Antiterra business - are apt to bewilder and discourage the ardent reader. It does then become less challenging, as the protagonist and "writer" of the book, Van Veen, travels to Ardis, the magnificent New England manor, where he meets and falls in love with his cousin (whom we discover, in the first chapter, is actually his sister). Their life-long love affair is persistently condemned and thwarted. But keep in mind that Nabokov himself isn't interested in condemning or advocating incest. As he said in an interview: "Actually I don't give a damn for incest one way or another. I merely like the 'bl' sound in siblings, bloom, blue, bliss, sable."

But the book is more than a 600-page cornucopia of enticing allusions and puns. It is an astonishing paean to memory, love and imagination. The prominent criticism of Nabokov's work is that he is so over-concerned with stylistics that his novels lack depth or poignancy (ugly word, but apt!). This accusation is not wholly unjust - at times he goes overboard; maybe he'd even admit that himself - but when he's at his best, Nabokov is unparalleled (well, nearly), both in emotional and aesthetic literary perfection.

I couldn't say that "Ada..." was Nabokov's greatest achievement - "Lolita" remains for me his total masterpiece - but this may well change upon rereading the book, which I most certainly will do.

Rich Characters.......2007-05-14

Lots going on here: great descriptions, complicated characters, interesting combinattion between historic and fictional period.

"by turns ecstatic and esoteric...".......2007-02-15

I haven't read Lolita, and am now somewhat mystified by my decision to begin reading Nabokov with Ada, his longest and arguably most complex work. The narrative is extraordinarily rich, not so much a generational saga (as the subtitle, "A Family Chronicle" suggests) but the measured, persistently vivacious pulse of a lifelong love affair between the novel's principal characters and narrators, Van and Ada.

Ada and Van are remarkable in their unfolding complexity, their abundances and deficiencies, their engaging humanness. Their lives are saturated with the sensual joys of sex and nature, a fullness that also includes the pleasures of language and literature. For me this is one of the most rewarding aspects of the novel, the warm embrace of the body and the mind in a celebratory vision of the world. And because the book is a memoir narrated by Van, with additions by Ada, the novel also functions as an exploration of memory, time, meaning and signifigance.

The prose is by turns ecstatic and esoteric, rapturously lucid and inscrutably convoluted. This is due, in part, to the novel and it's characters being tri-lingual, with substantial portions of dialogue written in a tumbling mixture of English, French and Russian. But the text itself is effusive and complicated, riddled with continuous verbal and thematic puns, allusions to Russian literature, ironical references and other demonstrations of cleverness, only a few of which are selectively explained (or further complicated) by 16 pages of accompanying endnotes.

Because the book is narrated by Van --"vain Van Veen"-- a certain amount of such embelishment and playful pretension is natural, even amusing. Nabokov seems to be extending his celebration of fullness through the size and complexity of the book itself. However, this tri-lingual density holds readers at a certain distance, and begins to feel more like the indulgences of a self-congratulating wordsmith than the craft of a gifted and sensitive writer. For this reader, it made for a somewhat long slog...

(3.5 stars)

huge fan of most V.N. but not this!.......2006-07-16

mon, i have de PHD in de comparative literature (true!) & my favorite novels be de "Lolita" & de "Pale Fire"; i have read ALL
Nabokov--& a number of de texts multiple times, mon. excepting dis piece of...unmitigated indulgence...perhaps N. was too close to de material. i no know. remember udder of me heroes--VS Naipaul & Paul Theroux--agreeing that NO ONE HAS READ THIS NOVEL. dees odder people be lying tru der teef, mon, if dey say dey made it tru dis turgid murk of a mucky-sloppy morass. avoidski, kiddies.
mon, havlf way tru de novel i realize "i couldn't possibly care less 'bout dees oafs, dees pawns in de hands of yes, de master, my favorite novelist, Vladimir... it truly an excercise in solipsism, mon"

Life is somewhere else .......2006-07-11

"Lolita" is Vladmir Nabokov's most famous book - but those who are able to read his "Ada or Ardor" that may not be his best. It is actually hard to pick one of them. Both novels are superbly written and unforgettable for different reasons. It seems to most readers that "Lolita" is easier to read, the plot is easier to follow and so is time and place. "Ada or Ardor" requires more attention, more ability to untie our bounds to reality and exploit an unknown world, as if life is not here, but in another place.

This place has a name, it is called Antiterra, and this is where narrative is set. `Where it is' is not the proper question - but reader should wonder what it is. And it requires quite a complex answer, that may take the whole book. Therefore, one should stop wondering and dive beneath the surface of the narrative, and get acquired with its characters. "Ada or Ardor" starts with an interesting quotation that could be from Tolstoy's "Anna Kariênina", but it is not. From the on, the narrator - and the reader, as consequence - starts to investigates the effects of memory and passion in the life of the characters - mostly Van, the main one, who falls in love with Ada, his cousin.

With "Ada or Ardor", Nabokov is dealing with the terrain where Proust is the king: memory. But in his version of a character trying to regain the lost time, Nabokov is also a master of language, narrative and effect. This novel is one of the most complex that readers can find in English - or any language, for that matter. There is a plot to follow, but it is the least important qualities when it comes to this narrative. The writer is more concerned with bringing his characters memories to life. And so he does with charm, intelligence and beauty.

Nabokov relation to the language is very peculiar. He has the ability to transform poetry into prose without making it read like pretentious. As a matter of fact, his superb language becomes vital to the narrative that unfolds slowly, on its own speed. This is when readers have to forget what they've experience with another books and let Nabokov's narrator conduce them to an unknown world, where earthy moral, judgments, feelings and relationships are not the law.

"Ada or Ardor" is more than a book, it is a complex and unforgettable reading experience. Its themes may cause strangeness, and the way Naobokov deals with them may disturb readers and leave others open-mouthed - but never indifferent. Since we are living an age where it is rare to book cause any commotion, "Ada or Ardor" stands as a unique piece that can cause the strongest feelings in its readers.

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited

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Bewitching.
Perhaps The Greatest Autobiography You'll Ever Read
Nostalgic & Brilliantly Written
Astonishing
The past as subject of the present

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679723390
Release Date: 1989-08-28

Amazon.com

The late Vladimir Nabokov always did things his way, and his classic autobiography is no exception. No dry recital of dates, names, and addresses for this linguistic magician--instead, Speak, Memory is a succession of lapidary episodes, in which the factoids play second fiddle to the development of Nabokov's sensibility. There is, to be sure, an impressionistic whirl through the author's family history (including a gallery of Tartar princes and fin-de-siècle oddities). And Nabokov's account of his tenure at St. Petersburg's famous Tenishev School--where he counted Osip Mandelstam among his schoolmates--offers a lovely glimpse into the heart of Russia's silver age. Still, Nabokov is much too artful an autobiographer to present Speak, Memory as a slice of reality--a word, by the way, that he insisted must always be surrounded by quotation marks.

Book Description

Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov's life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Defense.

Customer Reviews:

Bewitching. .......2007-01-15

Personally, I like everything Nabokov did if only because reading him makes me a better writer. He is a "master stylist" cut from the cloth of James Joyce (in terms of his innovation and talent) who challenges his audience at every turn. When devouring his fiction, I am sure that there are many things I miss due to my being no great genius of literary analysis, but time with Nabokov is invariably time well spent. I make a point of circling those lines and turns of phrase which are strikingly original in the hopes that my own skills improve via his brilliant examples. I do the same thing with vocabulary words which was particularly the case with Speak, Memory as I bracketed off those terms with which I am not familiar. Thus, it seems that studying Nabokov is an essential tutorial for the aspiring writer. This, his autobiography, is absolutely charming and easily accessible for those readers intimidated by his other works. The author describes his early life in Russia--and vicariously, life in Tsarist Russia in general--and provides us with a captivating history of his family. Unfortunately, I found that it ended too soon. I longed for another 200 pages so his development as a novelist could be more fully explored. Nabokov, like so many writers, appears to have been the quintessential introvert and his environmental struggles are quite compelling. This is an astounding work that should be consulted repeatedly.

Perhaps The Greatest Autobiography You'll Ever Read.......2006-09-18

I re-read SPEAK, MEMORY once a year or so; on every occasion I am left in awe of Nabokov's skill as a prose stylist, and am dazzled by the memories he re-creates here.

This is notable as the work of a writer of astounding technical skill and erudition, but also the work of someone who has a well-formed regard for his audience. At the very least, Nabokov expects that his audience will also be very intelligent.

Thus, what we are left with here is something far beyond a typical "self-portrait at 20," instead we are left with recollections reframed, recalled and rendered with an adamantine clarity that shimmers and dazzles - after reading the descriptions of a youth spent on a Russian estate one can smell the frost in the air, note the detail on the wings of the butterflies oft referenced, or almost see the long, northern latitude sunsets for yourself.

Technically formidable, engrossing and magical - this is one of very few books that I think everyone should read once.

-David Alston

Nostalgic & Brilliantly Written.......2006-07-30

It is known that the great author worked on this project for many years, collecting photographs, letters, scraps of unfinished poetry, searching his past in order to write a close to accurate account of his early life. In fact this autobiography is atypical, similar to a wandering mind, grasping at images, sights and smells, recollections, reminisces, rather than a chronological,'factual' version of a life lived.

The opening sentence of Speak, Memory, to my mind, is probably one of the most moving and haunting recollections in an autobiography ever read:

"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."

The narrator continues on to describe a young chronophobiac who experienced panic when he viewed an old home movie, seeing his mother wave from an upstairs window and below, a brand-new baby carriage standing alone, realizing that the carriage was his own days before his actual birth. This disturbed him as the feeling of peering at a world days before he came into existence, sort of a reverse course of events, was akin to staring directly into eternity.

Nabokov's childhood and adolescence was an enchanting one, part of an aristocratic family, a beautiful mother and a liberal-minded father who had a vast library, where little Vladimir would arrive home to find him practicing his fencing, the clanging of blades, with a colleague. This was a civilized existence in St. Petersburg before the onslaught of the Russian Revolution. Similar to most aristocratic families at the time, the Bolsheviks seized the family fortune, forcing the family to flee their beloved Russia to Germany. But when Nabokov looks back at this tumultuous period, he says,

"My old (since 1917) quarrel with the Soviet Dictatorship is wholly unrelated to any question of property. The nostalgia I have been cherishing all these years is a hypertrophied sense of lost childhood, not sorrow for lost banknotes."

The book is strewn with old black and white photographs of Nabokov's family. There is one particular photograph of his father and mother taken circa 1900 at their estate at Vrya, which really depicts the aristocratic demeanour and pure strength of the author's father. In the background are the birches and firs of the countryside where Nabokov discovered his life-long passion with butterfly collecting.

Even if the reader is not familiar with the great novels of Nabokov: Lolita, Pale Fire, The Eye and many others, will certainly enjoy this unique and brilliantly written autobiography by one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Astonishing.......2006-07-09

This is the way memoirs ought to be written. Nabokov takes the reader on a journey of the senses, of the dim and yet luminous memories of a childhood, through the eyes of a genius with an unprecedented attention for detail. Nabokov does not walk us through every relationship, every transition, etc. Rather, he gathers and recollects the memories of color, of feeling, and learning that are most important to him. There are remarkable passages in this text, including remarkably varied intellectual topics, i.e.: literature, politics, chess, mathematics, lepidoptery, ect. There is a passage on camoflauge and Nabokov's suspicion of Darwinian evolution that I love:

"Natural selection, in the Darwinian sense, would not explain the miraculous coincidence of imitative aspect and imitative behavior, nor could one appeal to the theory of `the struggle for life' when a protective device was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation. I discovered in nature the nonutilitarian delights that I sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and deception" (pg. 125).

And so too is, `Speak Memory' a nonutilitarian delight. It is a magical work of enormous imaginative and evocative energy.

The past as subject of the present.......2005-12-18

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born in Saint Petersburg, then capital of the Russian empire, in 1899. He was educated privately and at the Tenishev lyceum. His family emigrated in 1919 and he attended Cambridge, where he graduated in 1923. He married in 1925 and lived the precarious life of an émigré writer in Berlin until 1937. An only child had been born in 1934. I assume that it was his wife's (and then child's) Jewish origins that prompted him to move to Paris. His father had been murdered, at a political meeting in 1922, by a Russian monarchist who had meant to shoot someone else. After his mother's death in 1939, Nabokov moved his family to the US, where he became a college professor. The great commercial success of LOLITA after its final American publication, in 1958, allowed Nabokov to move back to civilisation in 1959. Thereafter he lived in Switzerland until his death in 1977.

Of his 78-year life span, Nabokov thus lived 20 years in European Russia, 19 in the US, and 39 in Western Europe. Although he became an American citizen and some of his works are being published in the Library of America, he was in no wise an "American" writer: there just isn't anything "American" about him. Like Tourguenev or Berdiaev, he was, all his life, a Russian aristocrat living abroad.

After 1940 he published in English as he could have done in French or German: in the manner W H Hudson, Joseph Conrad, George Santayana, Samuel Beckett or Héctor Bianciotti, his language is not an organic part of his literary imagination, but a translation of it.

This literary study on personal memory, which is not in any sense an autobiography, is finally an examination of his one real home: the country estate of his childhood imagination, in the Russia of his adult dreams. It is a book about inner exile as much as it is about real, physical displacement. As Nabokov says, "everybody is at home in his past"--provided, of course, that that past is fundamentally an inner experience seamlessly expressive of one's general consciousness.

This past-derived consciousness was the source of Nabokov's literary imagination: which is why he was most literarily active while living in the US in a kind of existential cocoon, and why he never completed the projected second part of this mémoire: his life post-1940 was basically not connected to anything he cared to write about.

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A Horror Classic
all about dr. jekyll and mr. hide
A Real Jekyll and Hyde Tale
Carnal and Moral Forces Collide
Somewhat Faded With Time But Still Incredibly Influential

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Signet Classics)
Robert Louis Stevenson
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451528956
Release Date: 2003-09-02

Book Description

The classic nightmare tale in a thrilling new edition

Spawned by a nightmare that Stevenson had, this classic tale of the dark, primordial night of the soul remains a masterpiece of the duality of good and evil within us all.

Customer Reviews:

A Horror Classic.......2007-04-22

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde is one of the most popular horror classics.
It is one of my favorites. Dr. Jekyll's experiment goes fowl.

all about dr. jekyll and mr. hide.......2007-03-01

In the commencement Mr. Utterson and his cousin Mr. Richard Enfield were walking throughout London. The men go by a mysterious cellar door, and then Mr. Enfield talked about a story that ensue here previously. Also later in the book Utterson work to help Dr. Jekyll from being brung into the ghastly tribulations of Mr. Hydes. One year later, Edward Hyde viciously murders Sir Danvers Carew by thrashing him to death with a cane.
I did not like this book because it was a high level booklover so I could not concentrate. I'd propose this book for high scholar for that reason, and if you're a person who reads allot. The genre was good because it was sci-fi and it seems sci-fi is a little more addicting. The author is a pretty well known writer his name is Robert Louis Stevenson.

A Real Jekyll and Hyde Tale.......2007-02-21

I have known about the basics of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story for as long as I can remember. This book has built an image over the years of being a classic tale of horror and fills the mind with many images. Yet actually, when I made the effort to sit down and read the book, it has a different affect. The writing and sequence of events in the book is pretty fragmented in many places. The book reads much more like a short story than a classic novel. Thus while reading the book, and certainly after completing the book, you can't help but to think of all the things and events that could have been added to the book to make it that classic novel that you originally envisioned. This book is certainly worth reading if anything just for the sake of Stevenson's perspective on the duality of man in the 19th century. Yet, take the book for what it is and don't set your expectations too high.

Carnal and Moral Forces Collide.......2007-02-05

What would you do if you could drink an elixir that removes all guilt from your mind for a few hours and allows you to partake in things that you normally would never dream of? Robert Louis Stevenson gives us a glimpse of what could happen in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." It's a wonderful classic originally published in 1886. In it, the well-worn battle between good and evil is played out not in the forms of a hero and a villain, but inside the mind and soul of one man who toys with the idea of acting out his most carnal (at least that's what the reader assumes) longings.

This isn't your cookie-cutter Hollywood version of "Jekyll and Hyde." It's a much deeper study of the human soul and it's longing to be a bit "naughty" and suffer none of the consequences. Time and again, Jekyll drinks his "liquid courage" and unleashes the evil that lies within. As the days, weeks and months pass by, Jekyll finds it harder to control the beast within, and his unholy friend makes more and longer appearances. Eventually, Mr. Hyde goes too far on one of his escapades, and it drives Jekyll to the brink of sanity.

Along the way, we are introduced to characters such as Utterson and his friend Enfield. We also meet Poole, Dr. Lanyon, and in a brief appearance, a maid servant who witnesses actions against one Mr. Carew. Although Jekyll and Hyde are the title characters, most of the book's focus is placed on Utterson. Jekyll gets one chapter (the final one) in which to give his account of what happens to him as he undergoes his changes.

Most of the films and plays based on this book portray the doctor as a good, wholesome man. However, while reading this book, I found that he was perhaps more evil than Hyde. He is capable of controlling his desires. Hyde is not. Instead of prohibiting himself from taking more of the elixir, Jekyll openly enjoys it. As he begins to lose more and more control of his situation, he attempts to correct his own wrongdoing. When this occurs, we find the one thing that Hyde fears.

This particular edition of "Jekyll and Hyde" features a rather humdrum introductory essay by Vladimir Nabokov. In my opinion, he goes to depths that Stevenson probably never meant to be uncovered in his morality tale. Skip the introduction if you are unfamiliar with the story. It will do nothing more than spoil your read. I do recommend the afterword by Dan Chaon. It's a much more interesting, less in depth look at this brief, wonderful story.

I highly recommend the tale. It gets five stars, but the introductory essay drags the story down and makes it almost boring. Therefore, I give this version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" four stars.

Somewhat Faded With Time But Still Incredibly Influential.......2006-07-14

Published in 1886, THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE was an instant sensation and had a tremendous impact on later generations; it would not be an exaggeration to say that there have been hundreds of stage and film productions drawn either directly or indirectly from the original Robert Louis Stevenson story. Readers who come to the story from these adaptations, however, will very likely be surprised: few of them do more than borrow Stevenson's central concept.

Unlike the numerous stage and film adaptations, Dr. Jekyll is not a young or remarkably handsome man, nor the book does not contain any of the romantic subplots to which its adaptations are prone. At approximately one hundred pages, the story is very direct and extremely well suited to Stevenson's very precise style, which is very clean yet extremely evocative and very readable.

That said, modern readers are unlikely to be shocked by the book. For one thing, the story is too well known; for another, it contains very little of the graphic horror typical of current horror stories. But more than anything else, DR. JEKYLL is very distinctly a novel that draws from the Victorian era, and much of its impact was due to that society's remarkable hypocrisy; it was a world in which appearances were everything and a double life "acceptable" as long as you were not caught at it.

The same concept arises in two other novels from the same era, Bram Stoker's DRACULA and Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, albeit in distinctly different forms. But whereas the Stoker and Wilde novels transcend their era, Stevenson's tale does not, and with the passing of Victorian attitudes the work has lost a great deal of its power to shock. Even so, Stevenson does touch a nerve with his chemically-induced transformation; then as now, drug abuse was a scourge, and in addition to this the work is somewhat similar to Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN in the sense that it anticipates a host of ethical concerns that have become more and more pressing with the passage of time.

Although it has not held up as well as the other titles named, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE is nonetheless unavoidable for any one who has an interest in gothic or horror literature because it had--and continues to have--such a tremendous influence on later works. Stevenson's prose is elegant, it is "an easy read," and I think most contemporary readers will enjoy it if they make the effort to see it within the context of its era.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

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