Scan barcode
A review by cameronbradley
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov
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.