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Nabokov, to be fair, left Russia before the age of 18 and I don't believe he ever returned [1]. Lolita, his magnum opus (at least by public opinion), was first

by alehul 8y ago

Nabokov, to be fair, left Russia before the age of 18 and I don't believe he ever returned [1]. Lolita, his magnum opus (at least by public opinion), was first written in English. Despite his upbringing, I'm not sure he would be best classified as Russian Lit. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov

dang 8y ago
Nabokov wrote many novels in Russian before he reluctantly switched to English. I prefer them to his later work, which is a bit too gimmicky for me. The earlier novels have that quality too, but it's more in balance with his other gifts. They're absolutely wonderful (edit: and not too long!), and there are good translations.
- alehul 8y ago
  Nine, apparently! Any particular recommendations out of those? And does an English version carry the same weight, or does one have to read in Russian to appreciate most of it?
  - dang 8y ago
    I read them in English. The translations are great and I'm pretty sure he vetted them carefully. IIRC, his son did some of them, in between being an opera singer. My favorite was Luzhin's Defense, about a chess master who goes mad. But I liked all of them, including Despair, Glory, and Invitation to a Beheading. Invitation to a Beheading is unusual, sort of phantasmagoric—a bit like Kafka at his most dreamlike. If you like movies that play games with "what is real", it's in that spirit. The first two English novels Sebastian Knight and Bend Sinister are very much in the style of his Russian novels. But the language of the Russian novels is lush rather than brittle, and this comes out even in the translations. My impression of Nabokov is that he was inwardly a romantic and even a sentimentalist, but was conflicted about that and so wrapped it in many layers of cleverness. For me, the cleverness and self-reference get to be too much in the later work. He's at his best when the cleverness and the romanticism are equally matched and the tension between them has the most energy. People say the sentimental side comes through more strongly in his memoir (Speak, Memory) but I haven't read that one.
billfruit 8y ago
I do think, though he wrote many novels in English, he drew much inspiration from the wellsprings of the Russian tradition.
selune 8y ago
Nabokov is absolutely considered a Russian writer by Russians themselves, both lit critics and casual readers. He wrote 8 novels in Russian and identified himself as both Russian and American and, according to his own words, loved the Russian language most.

by alehul 8y ago

dang 8y ago

Nabokov wrote many novels in Russian before he reluctantly switched to English. I prefer them to his later work, which is a bit too gimmicky for me. The earlier novels have that quality too, but it's more in balance with his other gifts. They're absolutely wonderful (edit: and not too long!), and there are good translations.

alehul 8y ago
Nine, apparently! Any particular recommendations out of those? And does an English version carry the same weight, or does one have to read in Russian to appreciate most of it?
- dang 8y ago
  I read them in English. The translations are great and I'm pretty sure he vetted them carefully. IIRC, his son did some of them, in between being an opera singer. My favorite was Luzhin's Defense, about a chess master who goes mad. But I liked all of them, including Despair, Glory, and Invitation to a Beheading. Invitation to a Beheading is unusual, sort of phantasmagoric—a bit like Kafka at his most dreamlike. If you like movies that play games with "what is real", it's in that spirit. The first two English novels Sebastian Knight and Bend Sinister are very much in the style of his Russian novels. But the language of the Russian novels is lush rather than brittle, and this comes out even in the translations. My impression of Nabokov is that he was inwardly a romantic and even a sentimentalist, but was conflicted about that and so wrapped it in many layers of cleverness. For me, the cleverness and self-reference get to be too much in the later work. He's at his best when the cleverness and the romanticism are equally matched and the tension between them has the most energy. People say the sentimental side comes through more strongly in his memoir (Speak, Memory) but I haven't read that one.

billfruit 8y ago

I do think, though he wrote many novels in English, he drew much inspiration from the wellsprings of the Russian tradition.

selune 8y ago

Nabokov is absolutely considered a Russian writer by Russians themselves, both lit critics and casual readers. He wrote 8 novels in Russian and identified himself as both Russian and American and, according to his own words, loved the Russian language most.