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Собрание сочинений в 4 томах #2
Защита Лужина. Подвиг. Соглядатай
Собрание сочинений включает в себя основную часть прозы В.В.Набокова, написанной на русском языке в 20 - 30-е годы. Издание строится преимущественно по жанрово-хронологическому принципу.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1990
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Vladimir Nabokov
893 books15k followersVladimir Nabokov (Russian: Владимир Набоков) was a writer defined by a life of forced movement and extraordinary linguistic transformation. Born into a wealthy, liberal aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia, he grew up trilingual, speaking Russian, English, and French in a household that nurtured his intellectual curiosities, including a lifelong passion for butterflies. This seemingly idyllic, privileged existence was abruptly shattered by the Bolshevik Revolution, which forced the family into permanent exile in 1919. This early, profound experience of displacement and the loss of a homeland became a central, enduring theme in his subsequent work, fueling his exploration of memory, nostalgia, and the irretrievable past.
The first phase of his literary life began in Europe, primarily in Berlin, where he established himself as a leading voice among the Russian émigré community under the pseudonym "Vladimir Sirin". During this prolific period, he penned nine novels in his native tongue, showcasing a precocious talent for intricate plotting and character study. Works like The Defense explored obsession through the extended metaphor of chess, while Invitation to a Beheading served as a potent, surreal critique of totalitarian absurdity. In 1925, he married Véra Slonim, an intellectual force in her own right, who would become his indispensable partner, editor, translator, and lifelong anchor.
The escalating shadow of Nazism necessitated another, urgent relocation in 1940, this time to the United States. It was here that Nabokov undertook an extraordinary linguistic metamorphosis, making the challenging yet resolute shift from Russian to English as his primary language of expression. He became a U.S. citizen in 1945, solidifying his new life in North America. To support his family, he took on academic positions, first founding the Russian department at Wellesley College, and later serving as a highly regarded professor of Russian and European literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959.
During this academic tenure, he also dedicated significant time to his other great passion: lepidoptery. He worked as an unpaid curator of butterflies at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His scientific work was far from amateurish; he developed novel taxonomic methods and a groundbreaking, highly debated theory on the migration patterns and phylogeny of the Polyommatus blue butterflies, a hypothesis that modern DNA analysis confirmed decades later.
Nabokov achieved widespread international fame and financial independence with the publication of Lolita in 1955, a novel that was initially met with controversy and censorship battles due to its provocative subject matter concerning a middle-aged literature professor and his obsession with a twelve-year-old girl. The novel's critical and commercial success finally allowed him to leave teaching and academia behind. In 1959, he and Véra moved permanently to the quiet luxury of the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland, where he focused solely on writing, translating his earlier Russian works into meticulous English, and studying local butterflies.
His later English novels, such as Pale Fire (1962), a complex, postmodern narrative structured around a 999-line poem and its delusional commentator, cemented his reputation as a master stylist and a technical genius. His literary style is characterized by intricate wordplay, a profound use of allusion, structural complexity, and an insistence on the artist's total, almost tyrannical, control over their created world. Nabokov often expressed disdain for what he termed "topical trash" and the simplistic interpretations of Freudian psychoanalysis, preferring instead to focus on the power of individual consciousness, the mechanics of memory, and the intricate, often deceptive, interplay between art and perceived "reality". His unique body of work, straddling multiple cultures and languages, continues to
The first phase of his literary life began in Europe, primarily in Berlin, where he established himself as a leading voice among the Russian émigré community under the pseudonym "Vladimir Sirin". During this prolific period, he penned nine novels in his native tongue, showcasing a precocious talent for intricate plotting and character study. Works like The Defense explored obsession through the extended metaphor of chess, while Invitation to a Beheading served as a potent, surreal critique of totalitarian absurdity. In 1925, he married Véra Slonim, an intellectual force in her own right, who would become his indispensable partner, editor, translator, and lifelong anchor.
The escalating shadow of Nazism necessitated another, urgent relocation in 1940, this time to the United States. It was here that Nabokov undertook an extraordinary linguistic metamorphosis, making the challenging yet resolute shift from Russian to English as his primary language of expression. He became a U.S. citizen in 1945, solidifying his new life in North America. To support his family, he took on academic positions, first founding the Russian department at Wellesley College, and later serving as a highly regarded professor of Russian and European literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959.
During this academic tenure, he also dedicated significant time to his other great passion: lepidoptery. He worked as an unpaid curator of butterflies at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His scientific work was far from amateurish; he developed novel taxonomic methods and a groundbreaking, highly debated theory on the migration patterns and phylogeny of the Polyommatus blue butterflies, a hypothesis that modern DNA analysis confirmed decades later.
Nabokov achieved widespread international fame and financial independence with the publication of Lolita in 1955, a novel that was initially met with controversy and censorship battles due to its provocative subject matter concerning a middle-aged literature professor and his obsession with a twelve-year-old girl. The novel's critical and commercial success finally allowed him to leave teaching and academia behind. In 1959, he and Véra moved permanently to the quiet luxury of the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland, where he focused solely on writing, translating his earlier Russian works into meticulous English, and studying local butterflies.
His later English novels, such as Pale Fire (1962), a complex, postmodern narrative structured around a 999-line poem and its delusional commentator, cemented his reputation as a master stylist and a technical genius. His literary style is characterized by intricate wordplay, a profound use of allusion, structural complexity, and an insistence on the artist's total, almost tyrannical, control over their created world. Nabokov often expressed disdain for what he termed "topical trash" and the simplistic interpretations of Freudian psychoanalysis, preferring instead to focus on the power of individual consciousness, the mechanics of memory, and the intricate, often deceptive, interplay between art and perceived "reality". His unique body of work, straddling multiple cultures and languages, continues to
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 3, 2019
ЗЛ – до чего все-таки клаустрофобный роман: в нем душно почище, чем в «Лолите», хотя казалось, что там душнее не бывает. Не про, понятно, никакие он не шахматы, как все отчего-то говорят — и даже не про русских, и то и другое там просто макгаффины. Он про то, как человек постепенно сходит с ума на моноидее, будь то какое-то увлечение, человек или любовь к родине. А это — очень неуютное пространство и неприятное путешествие.
Помимо того, что сам Лужин, как об этом прямым текстом говорит нам автор — случайное сочетание букв и слогов, на его месте мог оказаться любой. При том, что Лужин — конструкт совершенно неправдоподобный: он вообще не сливается в человеческую фигуру, сколько-нибудь напоминающую реальную. Или даже в вымышленного персонажа. Стоит ли говорить, что такие люди бывают и в жизни, и в этой конструкции — большая правда Набокова. Но в романе на его месте — зияние, никакого Александра Ивановича с самого начала.
Но один «запах тюремных библиотек, который исходил от советской словесности», — одно это очень дорого стоит. От нынешней пост-советской словесности он исходит в массе ее до сих пор, никак не выветривается, хотя почти сто лет прошло. Редчайшие исключения правило только подтверждают.
Ну и за такое, как в С, многое простить можно, это действительно повесть исключительная: «Человеку, чтобы счастливо существовать, нужно хоть час в день, хоть десять минут существовать машинально». Выражено очень неуклюже, коряво и вихляво, как многое у Набокова (чем и раздражает до сих пор, ничего не могу с этим поделать: практически отсутствием чеканных формулировок), но подмечено исключительно верно.
И следует добавить, что раздражает еще – вот это барское добродушное коверканье чужих языков, все эти тошнотворные “пузеля” и “пенделя”. Выглядит очень глупо, на самом деле, когда вроде бы умный человек вдруг рядится в зипуны и армяки.
Помимо того, что сам Лужин, как об этом прямым текстом говорит нам автор — случайное сочетание букв и слогов, на его месте мог оказаться любой. При том, что Лужин — конструкт совершенно неправдоподобный: он вообще не сливается в человеческую фигуру, сколько-нибудь напоминающую реальную. Или даже в вымышленного персонажа. Стоит ли говорить, что такие люди бывают и в жизни, и в этой конструкции — большая правда Набокова. Но в романе на его месте — зияние, никакого Александра Ивановича с самого начала.
Но один «запах тюремных библиотек, который исходил от советской словесности», — одно это очень дорого стоит. От нынешней пост-советской словесности он исходит в массе ее до сих пор, никак не выветривается, хотя почти сто лет прошло. Редчайшие исключения правило только подтверждают.
Ну и за такое, как в С, многое простить можно, это действительно повесть исключительная: «Человеку, чтобы счастливо существовать, нужно хоть час в день, хоть десять минут существовать машинально». Выражено очень неуклюже, коряво и вихляво, как многое у Набокова (чем и раздражает до сих пор, ничего не могу с этим поделать: практически отсутствием чеканных формулировок), но подмечено исключительно верно.
И следует добавить, что раздражает еще – вот это барское добродушное коверканье чужих языков, все эти тошнотворные “пузеля” и “пенделя”. Выглядит очень глупо, на самом деле, когда вроде бы умный человек вдруг рядится в зипуны и армяки.
May 12, 2020
Весь четырехтомник - самые часто перечитываемые мои книги.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews