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Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1955–1962

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This Library of America volume is the second of three volumes that contain the most authoritative versions of the English works of the brilliant Russian émigré, Vladimir Nabokov.

Lolita (1955), Nabokov’s single most famous work, is one of the most controversial and widely read books of its time. Funny, satiric, poignant, filled with allusions to earlier American writers, it is the “confession” of a middle-aged, sophisticated European émigré’s passionate obsession with a 12-year-old American “nymphet,” and the story of their wanderings across a late 1940s America of highways and motels. Of its deeper meanings, Nabokov characteristically wrote: “I am neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction, and… Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” (Nabokov’s film adaptation of Lolita, as originally written for director Stanley Kubrick, is also included.)

Pnin (1957) is a comic masterpiece about a gentle, bald Russian émigré professor in an American college town who is never quite able to master its language, its politics, or its train schedule. Nabokov’s years as a teacher provided rich background for this satirical picture of academic life, with an unforgettable figure at its center: “It was the world that was absent-minded and it was Pnin whose business it was to set it straight. His life was a constant war with insensate objects that fell apart, or attacked him, or refused to function, or viciously got themselves lost as soon as they entered the sphere of his existence.”

Pale Fire (1962) is a tour de force in the form of an ostensibly autobiographical poem by a recently deceased American poet and a critical commentary by an academic who is something other than what he seems. Its unique structure, pitting artist against seemingly worshipful critic, sets the stage for some of Nabokov’s most intricate games of deception and concealment. “Pretending to be a curio,” wrote Mary McCarthy, “it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century.”

The texts of this volume incorporate Nabokov’s penciled corrections in his own copies of his works which correct long-standing errors, and have been prepared with the assistance of Dmitri Nabokov, the novelist’s son.

904 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1,1996

This edition

Format
904 pages, Hardcover
Published
October 1, 1996 by Library of America
ISBN
9781883011192
ASIN
1883011191
Language
English

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About the author

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vladimir nabokov

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Russian: Владимир Набоков.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, was a Russian-American novelist. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist. He also made significant contributions to lepidoptery, and had a big interest in chess problems.

Nabokov's Lolita (1955) is frequently cited as his most important novel, and is at any rate his most widely known one, exhibiting the love of intricate wordplay and descriptive detail that characterized all his works.

Lolita was ranked fourth in the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels; Pale Fire (1962) was ranked 53rd on the same list, and his memoir, Speak, Memory (1951), was listed eighth on the publisher's list of the 20th century's greatest nonfiction. He was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction seven times.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 41 votes)
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41 reviews All reviews
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TheDeedsOfMen
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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3.5 / 5.0

Found Lolita Disgusting.

Enjoyed Pale Fire.

Pnin was confusing. Lolita Screenplay was better than book. Not as much introverted ruminating.
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Joe-kun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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The one with Bend Sinister is better I think, but this has the more well known ones.
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iAmSayo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff - and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

The finest master of the art of the English language at the height of his magic powers. Enough said.
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inubaranaz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I finished Lolita, started Pnin, but didn't even begin Pale Fire. Sometimes I wonder what makes "classics" become "classics". I do find it remarkable though that anyone can become an author in a language not their native tongue.
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SnailDW
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Linguistically speaking, it is an extremely well written ***** book. Content-wise, it is a disgusting and pervert book which deserves a lone *
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