Brothers Judd Top 100 of the 20th Century: Non-Fiction
I honestly don't consider myself competent to judge whether Nabokov
is one of the century's greatest writers. Like many of his contemporaries,
much of his work is so obscure as to defy my comprehension, but I do very
much like what I understand in Pale Fire (see Orrin's
review) and Lolita (see Orrin's
review), both of which made the Modern Library
Top 100 Novels of the Century, and, of course, to read him is to be
exposed to an English language and a prose style that one little knew existed.
So I am more than willing to acknowledge that he was a singular and immense
talent. It is altogether fitting then that his memoirs too should
be unique.
For the most part, Nabokov's mission here is literally to let his memory
speak. In so doing he recreates late czarist Russia in loving, painstaking
detail. While to the best of my knowledge Nabokov was never particularly
identified with the anti-Communist émigré movement, this
book is its own kind of indictment of the USSR. The case it lays
out is not the political or the economic one but the historical and cultural
one. As he says:
My old (since 1917) quarrel with the Soviet dictatorship
is wholly unrelated to any question of
property. My contempt for the émigré
who "hates the Reds" because they "stole" his money and
land is complete. The nostalgia I have been
cherishing all these years is a hypertrophied sense of
lost childhood, not sorrow for lost banknotes.
And finally: I reserve for myself the right to yearn
after an ecological niche:
...Beneath the sky
Of my America to sigh
For one locality in Russia.
The crimes of the commissars are without number and most are far greater
than this, but this richly textured, impossibly specific and deeply moving
memoir so brilliantly transports the reader to what seems to have been
a wonderful and altogether innocent existence that to that list of crimes
must be added the Bolsheviks utter destruction of this world. Even if you've
never liked any of his other books, do yourself a favor and read this one.
Even the passages that defy comprehension are beautiful.
(Reviewed:12-Apr-00)
Grade: (A)
Websites:
Vladimir Nabokov Links:
-Vladimir
Nabokov (1899-1977)(kirjasto)
-ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITANNICA: Your search: "vladimir nabokov"
-Life
& Times : Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) (NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of The Silence of the Sea, by Hilaire Belloc (Vladimir Nabokov, NY
Times, 1941)
-REVIEW:
of Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre (Vladimir Nabokov, NY Times, 1949)
-REVIEW:
of AUDOBON'S BUTTERFLIES, MOTHS AND OTHER STUDIES. Compiled and Edited
by Alice Ford (Vladimir Nabokov, NY Times, 1952)
-REVIEW:
Vladimir Nabokov: Rowe's Symbols, NY Review of Books
Nabokov's Deceptive World
by William Woodin Rowe
-ESSAY:
Nabokov's Butterflies (Vladimir Nabokov, The Atlantic)
-ESSAY:
Vladimir Nabokov: On Translating Pushkin POUNDING THE CLAVICHORD, NY
Review of Books
-ESSAY:
Vladimir Nabokov: TRANSLATION, NY Review of Books
-ESSAY:
Vladimir Nabokov: LUNAR LINES, NY Review of Books
-STORY:
"Cloud, Castle, Lake" (Nabokov, The Atlantic, June 1941)
-STORY:
The Aurelian (Vladimir Nabokov, The Atlantic, June 1941)
-STORY: Vladimir
Nabokov. The Assistant Producer (1943)
-STORY:
Vladimir Nabokov. A Forgotten Poet (1944)
-STORY:
Signs and Symbols Vladimir Nabokov
-STORIES:
Vladimir Nabokov: Two by Nabokov, NY Review of Books
-Literary
Research Guide: Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)
-FEATURED
AUTHOR: Celebrating Nabokov's Centenary (The New York Times)
-OBIT:
Vladimir Nabokov, Author of 'Lolita' and 'Ada,' Is Dead (ALDEN
WHITMAN, NY Times)
-OBIT:
Vladimir Nabokov: 1899-1977 (R.Z. SHEPPARD, TIME)
-100
Years Vladimir Nabokov (Random House)
-Zembla
-the
international vladimir nabokov society
-The
Nabokronology: a guide to Vladimir Nabokov's life and works
-{
w a x w i n g } the vladimir nabokov appreciation site
-Ardis
Picture Archives: Nabokov
-Soapbox
Collage: Vladimir Nabokov
-Nabokov
Under Glass: The Nabokov Archive in the Berg Collection at the New
York Public Library
-CNN
In-Depth Specials on Nabokov: "Beyond Lolita: Rediscovering Nabokov
on his birth centennial"
-Vladimir
Nabokov
-ESSAY:
The gay Nabokov: The novelist never could face the secret that
cost his brother his life (LEV GROSSMAN, Salon)
-ESSAY:
Vladimir Nabokov and William Shakespeare (Philip F Howerton,
Jr., Winter 1990 Shakespeare Oxford Society Newsletter)
-ESSAY:
The Nabokov gambit : They failed with Lolita (twice) and now
they've failed with The Luzhin Defence. Why do the novels of the great
prose sorcerer Vladimir Nabokov always defeat the film-makers? (Steven
Poole, Books Unlimited)
-REVIEW:
of Speak, Memory Evidence of the Hunt, Clues of a Past (ELIOT FREMONT-SMITH,
NY Times)
-REVIEW:
D.J. Enright: Nabokov's Way, NY Review of Books
The Waltz Invention by Vladimir
Nabokov
The Eye by Vladimir Nabakov
Despair by Vladimir Nabokov
Speak, Memory: An Autobiography
Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov
Escape Into Aesthetics:
The Art of Vladimir Nabokov by Page Stegner
-REVIEW:
The Reality of the Past: Book review of 'Speak, Memory'
(JAN. 20, 1967, TIME)
-REVIEW:
of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov The Tragedy of Man Driven by Desire
(ELIZABETH JANEWAY, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of Lolita (Orville Prescott, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Charles Rolo, The Atlantic,
SEPTEMBER 1958)
-REVIEW:
To the End of Night: Book review of 'Lolita' (SEPT. 1, 1958, TIME)
-ESSAY:
The Lolita Case (Time, 1958)
-REVIEW:
of Pale Fire In an Elaborate Spoof, Nabokov Takes Us to the Never-Never
Land of Zembla (GEORGE CLOYNE, Sunday, May 27, 1962, NY Times)
-REVIEW:
of Pale Fire (Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin)
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: The Magician's Trick, NY Review of Books
The Enchanter by Vladimir
Nabokov and translated by Dmitri Nabokov
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: The Supreme Fairy Tale, NY Review of Books
Lectures on Don Quixote
by Vladimir Nabokov
-REVIEW:
John Bayley: The Novelist as Pedagogue, NY Review of Books
Lectures on Russian Literature
by Vladimir Nabokov
-REVIEW:
Robert M. Adams: Nabokov's Show, NY Review of Books
Lectures on Literature:
British, French, and German Writers by Vladimir Nabokov
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: Nabokov's Touch, NY Review of Books
Look at the Harlequins!
by Vladimir Nabokov
Strong Opinions by Vladimir
Nabokov
-REVIEW:
Michael Wood: Tender Trousers, NY Review of Books
Transparent Things by Vladimir
Nabokov
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: Genesis, NY Review of Books
Glory by Vladimir Nabokov,
translated by Dimitri Nabokov
The Scorpion God by William
Golding
-REVIEW:
Jack Richardson: It's About Time, NY Review of Books
Mary by Vladimir Nabokov
and translated by Michael Glenny
-REVIEW:
Matthew Hodgart: Happy Families, NY Review of Books
ADA or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
by Vladimir Nabokov
-REVIEW:
William H. Gass: Mirror, Mirror, NY Review of Books
King, Queen, Knave by Vladimir
Nabokov
Nabokov: The Man and His
Work edited by L.S. Dembo
Keys to Lolita by Carl R.
Proffer
-REVIEW:
Edmund Wilson: The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov, NY Review of
Books
Eugene Onegin A Novel in
Verse by Alexandr Pushkin, translated by Vladimir Nabokov
-RESPONSE:
Vladimir Nabokov: LETTERS: THE STRANGE CASE OF NABOKOV AND
WILSON,
NY Review of Books
-REVIEW:
Harry Levin: A Contest Between Conjurors, NY Review of Books
The Nabokov-Wilson Letters:
Correspondence Between Vladimir Nabokov and Edmund Wilson, 1940-1971
-REVIEW:
Robert M. Adams: Nabokov's Game, NY Review of Books
The Defense by Vladimir
Nabokov
-REVIEW:
of Nabokov's Congeries (Anthony Burgess, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
of The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (1995, John Updike, NY Times
Book Review)
-REVIEW:
Robert M. Adams: The Wizard of Lake Cayuga, NY Review of Books
Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years by Brian Boyd
-REVIEW:
V.S. Pritchett: Nabokov's Game, NY Review of Books
Nabokov: His Life in Part
by Andrew Field
-REVIEW:
Denis Donoghue: Absolute Pitch
Nabokov: His Life in Art:
A Critical Narrative by Andrew Field
-REVIEW:
of V E r a ( Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov ) BY STACY SCHIFF
(MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, Salon)
-REVIEW:
of Vera by Stacy Schiff Behind the Mask of Mrs. Vladimir
Nabokov (Katherine Knorr, International Herald Tribune)
-REVIEW:
of NABOKOV'S BLUES: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius
By Kurt Johnson and Steve CoatesThe Ardent Collector (Donald Smith,
Washington Post Book World)
-ESSAY:
The Year of 'Lolita' (Brian Boyd, NY Times Book Review)
-ESSAY:
"Lolita," My Mother-in-Law, the Marquis de Sade, and Larry Flynt: Reflections
on art, pornography, and censorship, after the taboos have all been smashed
(Norman Podhoretz, Commentary)
-ESSAY:
PERSONAL BEST: Lolita (MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, Salon)
-ESSAY:
PERSONAL BEST: Lolita (AMY TAN, Salon)
-ESSAY:
Vladimir Nabokov: A personal centenary salute (John Yewell, MetroActive)
-ESSAY:
F.W. Dupee: Nabokov: the Prose and Poetry of It All, NY Review of Books
Book-related and General Links:
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