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lelandbuck's review against another edition
5.0
This is undoubtedly one of the finest collections of a single author's short writing. Nabokov was a true master of short fiction, and this collection leads the reader from one masterful work to another, covering the full period of the author's writing life.
cameronbradley's review against another edition
4.0
These 68 stories really run the gamut: some are pocket-sized and delectable (“A Russian Beauty”, “Signs and Symbols”), and then you’ve got monsters like “La Veneziana” which, at 26 pages (in my edition), will probably require the solace of some quiet, contemplative free time. Long or short, and no matter how devoid they may at first seem to be of action or plot, each one of these pieces is genius. It struck me several times throughout this tome that I’ll never be able to write sentences like Nabokov, and that, as an English speaker, I’m in fact lucky to be reading them at all (since an author’s style is always skewed when translated, even when done by a talented, tone-sensitive translator)—although Russians luck-out here as well.
I’m just going to open to a random page and… yep; from “Cloud, Castle, Lake” we have this gem:
Swept along a forest road as in a hideous fairy tale, squeezed, twisted, Vasiliy Ivanovich could not even turn around, and only felt how the radiance behind his back receded, fractured by trees, and then it was no longer there, and all around the dark firs fretted but could not interfere.
He can’t seem to let a sentence slip by without some alliteration, some pun—and although the style-over-substance aspect of his work is occasionally cloying, it’s well-worth the slog, even if the protagonist is too-often some Russian émigré with a writerly/artistic background (surprise, surprise). Anywho, these are my five favorite stories in this collection: “La Veneziana”, “An Affair of Honor”, “A Bad Day”, “The Potato Elf”, and “A Nursery Tale”.
This is a must-read for any fan of Nabokov, as well as those ever-dwindling-but-still-kicking readers of the short story.
I’m just going to open to a random page and… yep; from “Cloud, Castle, Lake” we have this gem:
Swept along a forest road as in a hideous fairy tale, squeezed, twisted, Vasiliy Ivanovich could not even turn around, and only felt how the radiance behind his back receded, fractured by trees, and then it was no longer there, and all around the dark firs fretted but could not interfere.
He can’t seem to let a sentence slip by without some alliteration, some pun—and although the style-over-substance aspect of his work is occasionally cloying, it’s well-worth the slog, even if the protagonist is too-often some Russian émigré with a writerly/artistic background (surprise, surprise). Anywho, these are my five favorite stories in this collection: “La Veneziana”, “An Affair of Honor”, “A Bad Day”, “The Potato Elf”, and “A Nursery Tale”.
This is a must-read for any fan of Nabokov, as well as those ever-dwindling-but-still-kicking readers of the short story.
rosekk's review
3.0
Some of the stories were great, and individually would get five stars. However, there is a reason it took me so long to finish this book. Many of them are meant to have a melancholy tone, but I found some of them so gloomy it was hard to get through them, and many of the characters in these excessively gloomy ones were hard to become attached to. This is more to do with me than the actual quality of the stories - Nabokov's writing is always amazing - but I suspect I'm not the only one who will find some of these stories hard to get through.
suchasuckerforbooks's review against another edition
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Nouvelles traduites par Maurice Couturier, Yvonne Couturier, Gérard-Henri Durand, Bernard Kreise, et Laure Troubetzkoy. Un excellent recueil des nouvelles peu connues ; par la chronologie, depuis les œuvres de jeunesse jusqu'aux récits qui annoncent les chefs-d'œuvre, on suit l'évolution de l'écrivain à travers celle de l'œuvre.
stewreads's review against another edition
5.0
Nabokov wrote beautifully always. Pick any story in this book, even an uninteresting story, and you will see that this is true. He seems to have just been able to conjure up characters, plots, metaphors, whole worlds out of thin air on a whim, and spew them onto the page. The range of genres in this collection is astounding: Nabokov wrote sympathetic tales of his home in Russia, stories of his various passions in life, heartbreaking romances, neurotic letters to fictional authors, horrifying surrealist experiences, fantasies both hilarious and unbelievable, chilling ghost stories, and even, in the very last story, science fiction. Needless to say, he did it all, and he did it better than anyone else. I have not yet found (and hardly plan to find) another author who wrote in such jaw-dropping prose, or was such a fountain of creativity.
And the notes Nabokov wrote in the Appendix to each of the stories were great. Don't miss them.
P.S. I'm so glad that this was set in chronological order, as any complete short story collection should be. It was interesting to watch the author improve, considering that it's hard to imagine him ever writing anything that was less than perfect.
And the notes Nabokov wrote in the Appendix to each of the stories were great. Don't miss them.
P.S. I'm so glad that this was set in chronological order, as any complete short story collection should be. It was interesting to watch the author improve, considering that it's hard to imagine him ever writing anything that was less than perfect.
cmiller0401's review against another edition
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