Recommendations Nabokov: what books to read, and what - no

Books / by admin / December 19, 2019

Nabokov not only praised favorite authors, but also did not hesitate to harshly criticize writers, despite their international fame and general recognition. Therefore, a new collection of Layfhakera consists of two parts: the book, the author of "Lolita" is highly valued, and books that spoke rather harshly.

Admirers of Nabokov made a list of his reviews on the various writers on the materials of the collection "strong opinion". Some, he said with great enthusiasm, some felt indifference and even disgust. Layfhaker chosen from this list of books, which strongly hooked Nabokov - and in a good and bad sense.

10 books that are popular with Nabokov

1. "Molloy", Samuel Beckett

His favorite works of Beckett, Nabokov at various times called novels "Molloy," "Malone dies" and "Unspeakable." the writer himself was a very dubious compliment: Beckett, Nabokov called "the charming author of novels and plays worthless."

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2. "Petersburg", Andrew White

Nabokov admired White for "outstanding imagination." His main work is called the third most important novel of the XX century.

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3. "Suburban husband," John Cheever

Cheever wrote stories about the middle class Americans, through which showed the lifestyle of the whole country, and earned praise from Nabokov for "convincing sequence". Cheever of the considered one of the "particularly favorite" writers.

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4. "Ulysses," James Joyce

Joyce - favorite writer Nabokov at the age from 20 to 40 years. I considered him a genius. When someone compared him with the means of expression Joyce, Nabokov always humbly acknowledged that his English, compared to the title game Joyce - is child's play, "" Ulysses "- the divine work art. The greatest masterpiece of prose of the XX century. Towering over all other works of Joyce. Outstanding originality, clarity of thought and unique style. "

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5. "Metamorphosis", Franz Kafka

In the individual rankings Nabokov this surreal philosophical novel takes the second place among the great masterpieces of the XX century.

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6. "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy

Nabokov called Tolstoy's genius, though noticed that no one refers to its activities in earnest moralism. He praised "Anna Karenina" for "the incomparable prose artistry" and regarded it as a major masterpiece of XIX century. Also among the works of Tolstoy he singled out "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." But "War and Peace", on the contrary, loved and considered too lengthy work written for young people for educational purposes.

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7. "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne

Writer, which, according to Nabokov, worth reading in my youth. Story of an eccentric London inventor Phileas Fogg, who made a bet, and went to tour around the world, was his favorite book from 10 to 15 years. But no longer.

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8. "War of the Worlds," HG Wells

Another author, whom Nabokov loved in childhood and adolescence. But even in middle age, he always spoke warmly about Wells, calling him "a writer to whom I have the deepest admiration." The book "Good Friends", "Anna Veronica" and "Time Machine" is considered better than that of Wells contemporaries could write. A novel "Invisible Man," "War of the Worlds" and "The First Men in the Moon" was awarded the assessment "particularly good".

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9. "Praise the darkness", Jorge Luis Borges

Nabokov wrote about Borges: "How to breathe freely in his unfathomable maze! Clarity of thought, purity of poetry. A man of infinite talent. " Better not say.

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10. "In search of lost time" Marcel Proust

Nabokov thought this novel Proust's fourth most important masterpiece of the XX century. However, with the caveat: only the first half.

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10 books that Nabokov detested

1. "Twelve," Blok

Nabokov spoke warmly about the lyrics Bloc, and in his youth considered him his favorite poet, but at the same time pointed out the weakness of its long products. A poem "The Twelve" generally received devastating review "Nightmare. Sheepishly soaked in fake "primitive" tone at the beginning and a pink cardboard Jesus adhered to the end. "

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2. "Don Quixote", Miguel de Cervantes

Book Cervantes, apparently, not very much liked Nabokov. Although he had read about it a course of lectures for students of Harvard, where dismantled all work just by chapter - but every now and then supplying the story caustic remarks. Summary of the novel by Nabokov gave unequivocal: "the cruel and crude old book."

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3. "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Nabokov did not just did not like Dostoevsky, but the reward of a mountain of unflattering epithets "lover of cheap sensationalism", "vulgar", "clumsy", "cheap journalist", "sloppy comedian." And if "The Brothers Karamazov" earned a modest assessment "strongly dislike", the "Crime and Punishment" got over "awful tyagomotina".

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4. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway

By his own admission, Nabokov could not tolerate this novel Hemingway. And the writer appreciated not say so highly: "The writer of books for boys. Of course, it is better Conrad. Even has its own voice. But I do not write anything that I would like to write myself. Mentality and emotionality - hopelessly immature. " While at the same time, Nabokov thought his story "The Killers" and the novel "The Old Man and the Sea" delicious.

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5. "Death in Venice", Thomas Mann

Nabokov has identified Mann in "second-class, ephemeral and swollen writers." His sincerely angered that "Death in Venice" someone can be called a masterpiece: Nabokov considered it "absurd delusion."

6. "Doctor Zhivago", Boris Pasternak

Wonderful poet and a bad writer - this characteristic was Pasternak. By the novel "Doctor Zhivago" Nabokov detested, considering it too melodramatic and disgusting He wrote: "pro-Bolshevik, historically false, trivial scenes with clumsy and banal coincidences ".

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7. "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", Nikolai Gogol

Nabokov's attitude to Gogol ambiguous and contradictory: "Seriously its mystical sermons no one takes. The worst jobs in the Ukrainian his nonsense, he - worthless, in the best -. Peerless and unique " But Gogol's early works, he gives quite a clear assessment: "When I want to, I had a nightmare, I imagine Gogol, strochaschego in the Little Russian volume after volume "Dikanka" and "Mirgorod": the ghosts that roam the banks of the Dnieper, vaudeville Jews and dashing Cossacks ".

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8. "Stranger," Albert Camus

Existentialists Nabokov is not particularly attracted to. But despite the fact that he called Camus' empty space, that does not mean anything to me, "the very wording makes this doubt. Nabokov has repeatedly said he does not like work of Camus, and gave him the same response as the Manna "second-rate, ephemeral, bloated. Awful. "

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9. "Nausea", Jean-Paul Sartre

Review about Sartre promising: "Even worse than Camus." "Nausea" is not particularly pleased for "a busy mind, but in reality very weak writing style."

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