Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (
Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков, pronounced [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr nɐˈbokəf] ( listen), also known by the pen name
Vladimir Sirin; 22 April [
O.S. 10 April] 1899c -- 2 July
1977) was a Russian-American novelist.
Nabokov's first nine novels were in Russian. He then rose to international prominence as a writer of
English prose. He also made serious contributions as a lepidopterist and chess composer.
Nabokov's
Lolita (
1955) is his most famous novel, and often considered his finest work in English. It exhibits the love of intricate word play and synesthetic detail that characterised all his works. The novel was ranked fourth in the list of the
Modern Library 100 Best Novels;
Pale Fire (1962) was ranked at 53rd on the same list, and his memoir,
Speak, Memory, was listed eighth on the
Modern Library nonfiction list. He was a finalist for the
National Book Award for Fiction seven times, but never won it.
Nabokov's first writings were in Russian, but he came to his greatest distinction in the
English language. For this achievement, he has been compared to
Joseph Conrad, yet Nabokov viewed this as a dubious comparison, as
Conrad composed in
French and English. Nabokov disdained the comparison for aesthetic reasons, lamenting to the critic
Edmund Wilson, "I am too old to change Conradically" -- which
John Updike later called, "itself a jest of genius"
.[22] Nabokov translated many of his own early works into English, sometimes in cooperation with his son
Dmitri. His trilingual upbringing had a profound influence on his artistry.
Nabokov himself translated into Russian two books that he had originally written in English, Conclusive
Evidence and Lolita. The "translation" of Conclusive Evidence was made because of Nabokov's feeling of imperfection in the English version. Writing the book, he noted that he needed to translate his own memories into English, and to spend a lot of time explaining things that are well known in
Russia; then he decided to re-write the book once again, in his first native language, and after that he made the final version, Speak, Memory (Nabokov first wanted to name it "
Speak, Mnemosyne"). Nabokov was a proponent of individualism, and rejected concepts and ideologies that curtailed individual freedom and expression, such as totalitarianism in its various forms, as well as
Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.[23] Poshlost, or as he transcribed it, poshlust, is disdained and frequently mocked in his works.[24] On translating Lolita, Nabokov writes, "I imagined that in some distant future somebody might produce a Russian version of Lolita. I trained my inner telescope upon that particular
point in the distant future and I saw that every paragraph, pock-marked as it is with pitfalls, could lend itself to hideous mistranslation
. In the hands of a harmful drudge, the Russian version of Lolita would be entirely degraded and botched by vulgar paraphrases or blunders. So I decided to translate it myself."[25]
Nabokov published under the pseudonym "Vladimir Sirin" in the
1920s to
1940s, occasionally to mask his identity from critics.[26] He also makes cameo appearances in some of his novels, such as the character "
Vivian Darkbloom" (an anagram of "
Vladimir Nabokov"), who appears in both Lolita and
Ada, or Ardor.
Nabokov is noted for his complex plots, clever word play, and use of alliteration. He gained both fame and notoriety with his novel Lolita (1955), which tells of a grown man's devouring passion for a twelve-year-old girl. This and his other novels, particularly Pale Fire (1962), won him a place among the greatest novelists of the
20th century. His longest novel, which met with a mixed response, is Ada (
1969). He devoted more time to the composition of this novel than any of his others. Nabokov's fiction is characterised by linguistic playfulness. For example, his short story "
The Vane Sisters" is famous in part for its acrostic final paragraph, in which the first letters of each word spell out a message from beyond the grave.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Nabakov
- published: 19 Jun 2014
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