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Nabokov writes imaginative sometimes eccentric stories: Russian, Parisian, and in America Boston and NY. Usually pretty good conceptual pieces. His use of language is brilliant, his alliteration is whimsical. Prince of Authors, King of Alliteration. Beyond the dualism implied in the name Humbert Humbert couldn't it have just been a Pun on alliteration?! Practically humorless writing but it leaves one smiling. It's a shame that he is primarily known for his one banned book, a little(or more)over the top, but which one do you think sold? This book of shorts could easily end up on somebody's abandoned or DNF shelf  because it is 65 stories back-to-back. You will hardly ever see language used so creatively,just amazing. Watch the author interview, Nabokov admits to a little stammering in discussions and social situations when he feels uncomfortable or misconstrued.

As yet I have only read about ten stories from this massive volume, but what strikes me about them is the way he shows character through such original descriptions and exactingly observed gestures - it's somehow like watching a virtuoso actor.

A collection of translated stories from Nabokov’s early writings in Russia, mostly from the 20’s and 30’s and 40’s

Nabokov was well traveled — so some of the stories take place in France, Germany, England and the U.S. as well. I tended to like these stories better. The Russian centered stories tend to be quite bleak.

So here are the followings stories I liked the most — they felt rather timeless.

1. Potato Elf — in this story an oft ridiculed circus dwarf falls for his conjurer friend’s wife. She may have ulterior motives. The story is a bit Kafka-esque and well told.

2. The Leonardo — two dastardly brothers despise a newly arrived neighbor who is a bookish merchant — they view him as different and elitist. An insightful story about populism and rationalizing outcomes — eerily reminiscent to Trumpism today.

3. Signs and Symbols — probably the most perfect and most relatable story in the collection. An aging couple are at a loss about what to do about their institutionalized son.

4. First Love — a story about a little boy’s vacation in Western Europe in 1909. At the beach he falls in love with a French girl named Colette. Beautifully descriptive.

3.5 stars

Having worked my way through approximately half of this collection of Nabokov stories, I'm setting it aside to return to later. I have other books on my table.

Nabokov is one of my favorite writers, but ploughing through a number of short stories makes me realize that he is stronger in long forms than in short ones. This is not a criticism, but an observation of his style and methods, and how they are best utilized. For example, the story "The Vane Sisters" reads like it might have been an excerpt from one of Nabokov's satires of academia, like "Pnin" or "Pale Fire." In the context of a longer narrative, the characters might have been allowed more development, the narrator might have been expanded. By itself, it feels incomplete, like a provocative fragment waiting to be fleshed out. I had that feeling in a number of cases here, that what I was reading was the fragment of what would have been a novel if Nabokov had "world enough and time."

On the other hand, some of the stories here had a shorter, more satisfying arch, so not all of them felt fragmentary. But I was still left with the sense that for all his brilliance with language, Nabokov was better served when he could stretch out.

Nabokov the alchemist of language. No other writer can call forth sights and sounds to create those indescribable moments and moods like he does.

What Longing!

Some of these stories almost knocked me out of my chair. Even my landlady choked on her earl gray while sampling a story over her morning egg.

What variety of characters! Smelly vengeful angels, immigrant forest spirits, gods and devils, cowards and drunks. Everyone of them alive in my mind.

Longing, the one word that comes to mind to sum up the aching dramas and bitter lives... all that longing.

You know, sitting down to review (I rarely review standing up much these days), the entire corpus of stories by Nabokov is not an undaunting challenge, especially for someone as lazy and prone to haiku-length spasms of critique as me. The bulk of these stories are from the Russian, circa 1921-1940, meaning the style is predominantly early Vlad—an astonishing felicity for pastoral and psychological detail, a playfulness uncorroded by the arch cynicism of the later novels, and the firm establishment of the Master’s stylistic brilliance, where every sentence instantly compels you into a world that is serenely vivid, surreally off-beam, and recognisably Nabokovian. As Nabokov’s prose is exhaustively magnificent from sentence to sentence, the density of the quality of these stories is a challenge for speedier readers like me (and two were skipped—‘Ultima Thule’ and ‘Solus Rex’). Among the most memorable for me were ‘Spring in Fialta’, ‘Tyrants Destroyed’, ‘The Admiralty Spire’ and ‘A Forgotten Poet’, each mixing the sardonic humour and penchant for literary mischievousness that makes Nabokov one of the 20thC’s most lovable literary imps. There are occasional thickets of wild Nabokovian prose where lucidity is sacrificed at the altar of his more abstruse, opaque stylistic leanings (stories like ‘Lance’ or ‘Easter Rain’), but rarely is a Collected Stories as consistently breathtaking as this. The conclusion? Nabokov’s stories sit alongside Gogol’s and Chekhov’s as among of the finest of the Russian short form.

Explanatory Background Statement: You will notice that this book is shelved "unfinished". In between novels and on a short fiction kick, I decided that I should at least dip my toes into a few hallowed literary names before taking on the mantle of my next Big Read. Ellison was one (see also) and Nabokov was the other. I didn't crack the covers on this one expecting to finish it. Especially as I hefted the thick volume from the library's shelf, I knew that my goal was only to get my feet wet.

My Review (more about Nabokov than this collection, specifically): Nabokov is eloquent and purposeful in his prose. Even as diaphanous metaphors dance fairy-like around The Point, The Point is there -- some artful nugget of Truth upon which he has fixed and thrust his (and now your) attention. I often wonder what gets lost or otherwise muddied in the translation. Which stories are written in "the original Russian" and which in English? Need I not worry about that at all? But I worry that certain expressive techniques don't come across correctly. Alliteration, for example: could an alliterative phrase in one tongue have no analogous transformation? I suppose you could always supplement with a footnote.

Anyway, I feel like a troglodyte saying it but: Nabokov's writing sure is artful but there just wasn't very much in it that I found... compelling. However, "Russian Spoken Here"? A+

I expect to circle back on this collection again, perhaps finish it off, and find more to love.

Thích nhất "Một truyện đồng thoại" vì truyện hay và thú vị (dù không hẳn là truyện hay nhất theo kiểu của Nabokov) . Ngoài ra, thích nhất là những đoạn Nabokov miêu tả phụ nữ, rất đẹp, mỗi người mỗi vẻ.

sometimes you just want to bask in genius

This is a very, very, VERY short but nice little read and Nabokov's writing style is as beautiful as ever. A shame it was such a short piece but it didn't need much more. Lovely.

After a long semester I have successfully trudged through EVERYTHING Vlad wrote. A ranking for you all from worst to best (faves have descriptions).

Do NOT Touch with a 10 Foot Pole: The Gift

Not Worth It: Mary, Look at the harlequins, transparent Things, The Eye, King/Queen/Knave

Pretty Good: Bend Sinister, Sebastian Knight, The Defense, Ada, Glory, Pnin

6th Place: The Stories. Compression was really good for Vlad. He fits so much into so little; Truly almost all of them work well in different ways. Russian Spoken Here, Visit to Museum are favorites.

5th Place: Speak, Memory: a beautiful memoir, only hurt by how old the biographies of him that I have read counteract a lot of his idealized vision here. Some of the best writing about how memory works is in here it's so well done. Unfortunately, his life is incredibly irritating, and his whole persona is irritating. HOWEVER, the memory work is SO BEAUTIFUL.

4th Place: Pale Fire. Unfortunately, Nabokov's craft here is incredibly well done. It's almost annoying, scratch that it is annoying, how he gets away with the trick of this book of the poem with the commentary, but the commentary turns into a novel. It's PERFECTLY crafted and I didn't get it till the 4th reading.

3rd Place: Despair AND Laughter in the Dark. A tie!! Both of these books are objectively so fun. It's Nabokov having a good time to make some money without feeling the need to be pretentious We are talking a guy was convinced someone is his twin and murdered him for the insurance money only for the police to say they don't look alike, we are talking a blind man not noticing his daughter is having sex in the same room. They are SO fun. 10/10 beach reads.

2nd Place: Lolita. To me, this is another one of the unfortunately it is good. I'm currently writing my term paper on how in the 1950s this was incredibly groundbreaking and brought attention to the issues presented in the book in a positive way. I understand though that this book is super painful for a lot of people. It leaves me very complicated but I'm very grateful for reading it if that makes sense?

#1: Invitation to a Beheading. Everything about this book is perfect. It is so well crafted, it is so engaging, and it does so much good for society. In the argument it makes. I truly loved it and put nonstop reading it. I canceled plans to stay home and finish this one.

Final thoughts on Vladimir are we got along great for us semester. He's very fun to read carefully even if he also gets incredibly annoying and pretentious: he said that stories like his could only be written once every thousand years. I'm convinced if I ever met him in person I would not like him. But it makes his writing fun to engage with. I will however be taking a break come May 13.

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