Vladimir Nabokov, écrivain, 1899-1977*

 806456
Butterflies. Image ID: 806456

First, a word on the pronunciation. Vladimir rhymes with “redeemer” and Nabokov is stressed on the second syllable and “bok” rhymes with “oak.”  I know that pointing that out makes me seem like a bit of a prig and possibly a bore at parties (and I don’t totally disagree with either description), but since my wife is Russian, I have to pronounce it correctly.  You don’t, but it will stand you in good stead if you happen to find yourself at a party filled with prigs and bores.

 TH-39362
Vladimir Nabokov. Image ID: TH-39362

My love of Nabokov begins and ends with his use of the English language.  Reading him opened my eyes to how beautiful and wondrous this language could be.  For many years I thought that it was ironic that it took someone who wasn’t a native speaker to teach me how special English could be.  That was up until I discovered that, as a child, Nabokov began learning English from the very beginning.  In fact, he said that he was a “bilingual baby.”  In an interview with Life, Nabokov was asked which of the languages he spoke was the most beautiful.  He answered “My head says English, my heart, Russian, my ear, French.”

If you haven’t read Nabokov—or if you’ve only read his most famous novel, Lolita—and you love to read books with exquisite language, here are three to consider:

Speak, Memory
Technically, this is supposed to be a memoir of Nabokov’s early life, but since the facts presented are highly questionable (perhaps speculative would be a more polite adjective to use here), it is better to call it a gilded evocation of his childhood.

Pale Fire
I am always hard-pressed to pick which of Nabokov’s novels I like best: Lolita or Pale Fire.  I think that I love the language of Lolita more, but I find the brilliance of the concept and execution of Pale Fire to be breath-taking.  The novel is composed of a poem (divided into four cantos) by John Shade and commentary and notes by a colleague of his named Charles Kinbote.  The “plot” is very convoluted, but what makes the book great is the character of Kinbote—perhaps the greatest unreliable narrator ever created.

Despair
Perhaps Nabokov’s most plot-driven book, Despair tells the story of Hermann Karlovich who, after meeting a man he believes to be his doppelgänger,  devises a plan to commit  the “perfect murder” where he himself will be the “victim.”  Needless to say, despite his careful planning, things don’t turn out quite the way he expects them to.

Oh, and one other thing about Nabokov—April 22nd is his birthday. Happy Birthday, Vla-DEEM-er!

*The title of this post is what is engraved on Nabokov's headstone.

Comments

Patron-generated content represents the views and interpretations of the patron, not necessarily those of The New York Public Library. For more information see NYPL's Website Terms and Conditions.

The richness of Nabokov's works

Hello Wayne. The richness of Nabokov's novels go well beyond what is offered at first sight. For instance, as Nabokov admitted in two interviews in the 60s, there is a subjacent level of reading in several of his books, among them he named "Lolita" explicitly. For instance in one of these interviews he said: “(Lolita) was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle – its composition and its solution at the same time, since one is mirror view of the other, depending on the way you look”. And indeed, we can see phenomenons of reflexion in the novel (e.g. Pratt / Trapp, Blanche Schwarzman / Melanie Weiss, the widow Haze / the widow Hays, etc…). Here’s a link treating the subject if you’re interested: – https://wittevlinders.wordpress.com/ .