Серия книг «Penguin Modern Classics (Nabokov)» — 7 книг

Nabokov's 1959 portrait of fellow Russian Gogol offered a different take from previous studies. He debunks the theory that Gogol was the Russian Dickens, claiming that his comedy was much more severe, and blames the misrepresentation of Gogol's work on bad translations and crude interpretations. Solid for the academics.

Nabokov's 1959 portrait of fellow Russian Gogol offered a different take from previous studies. He debunks the theory that Gogol was the Russian Dickens, claiming that his comedy…

Vladimir Nabokov is acknowledged as one of the greatest prose stylists of the twentieth century, but his first love was poetry. This collection brings together the best of Nabokov's masterly verse. It spans the decades of his career, from "Music", written in 1914 and probably Nabokov's first recorded poem, to the short, playful "To Vera", composed in 1974. "The University Poem" an extraordinary autobiographical poem suffused with rich description, wit and verbal dexterity, is here in English for the first time, and there is also verse written on America, lepidoptery, sport, love, exile and homeland, all revealing a new, unexpected side to Nabokov the writer.

Vladimir Nabokov is acknowledged as one of the greatest prose stylists of the twentieth century, but his first love was poetry. This collection brings together the best of…

A novel constructed around the last great poem of a fictional American poet, John Shade, and an account of his death. The poem appears in full and the narrative develops through the lengthy, and increasingly eccentric, notes by his posthumous editor.

A novel constructed around the last great poem of a fictional American poet, John Shade, and an account of his death. The poem appears in full and the narrative develops through…

Self-satisfied, delighting in the many fascinating quirks of his own personality, Hermann is perhaps not to be taken too seriously. But then a chance meeting with Felix, a man he believes to be his double, reveals a frightening "split" in Hermann's nature. Convinced that he has found his doppelganger, Hermann uses this discovery to weave a money-making plan that leads to disguise, betrayal and eventually murder.

Self-satisfied, delighting in the many fascinating quirks of his own personality, Hermann is perhaps not to be taken too seriously. But then a chance meeting with Felix, a man he…

Written in Berlin in 1934, "Invitation to a Beheading" contains all the surprise, excitement and magical intensity of a work created in two brief weeks of sustained inspiration. It takes us into the fantastic prison-world of Cincinnatus, a man condemned to death and spending his last days in prison not quite knowing when the end will come. Nabokov described the book as 'a violin in a void. The worldling will deem it a trick. Old men will hurriedly turn from it to regional romances and the lives of public figures ...The evil-minded will perceive in little Emmie a sister of little Lolita ...But I know a few readers who will jump up, ruffling their hair'.

Written in Berlin in 1934, "Invitation to a Beheading" contains all the surprise, excitement and magical intensity of a work created in two brief weeks of sustained inspiration.…

Nabokov's comic masterpiece charts the wry, bizarre progress of Professor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, now precariously perched on a college campus in the fast-beating heart of the USA. A man of complex emotions, Pnin does halting battle with American life and language. But in this moving, amusing story of a seemingly born loser at odds with the New World, there is all the pathos of a generation cruelly and irrevocably severed from its past.

Nabokov's comic masterpiece charts the wry, bizarre progress of Professor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, now precariously perched on a college campus in the fast-beating…

Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, "Ada or Ardor" is a romance that follows Ada from her first childhood meeting with Van Veen on his uncle's country estate, in a 'dream-bright' America, through eighty years of rapture, as they cross continents, are continually parted and reunited, come to learn the strange truth about their singular relationship and, decades later, put their extraordinary experiences into words.

Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, "Ada or Ardor" is a romance that follows Ada from her first childhood meeting with Van Veen on his uncle's country estate, in a…