List Books In Pursuance Of Despair
| Original Title: | Отчаяние [Otchayanie] |
| ISBN: | 0679723439 (ISBN13: 9780679723431) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Hermann Karlovich, Lydia Karlovich |
| Setting: | Berlin(Germany) Prague (Praha)(Czech Republic) |
Vladimir Nabokov
Paperback | Pages: 212 pages Rating: 3.92 | 7384 Users | 474 Reviews
Particularize About Books Despair
| Title | : | Despair |
| Author | : | Vladimir Nabokov |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 212 pages |
| Published | : | May 14th 1989 by Vintage (first published 1934) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Cultural. Russia. Literature. Russian Literature |
Chronicle In Favor Of Books Despair
Intensely good writing, with the unique Nabokovian feature of phrases we've never heard before somehow moving propulsively. Unfortunately, after a promising start, the plot turns flimsy, with the "twist" at the end telegraphed far too often to be anything other than a disappointment. This is an iceberg novel, but what's beneath the surface (the book jacket copy) is likely more interesting than the ramblings of our lead, Hermann, who (in the Zweigian conceit of the novel) has written and sent the prose to Nabokov for publication.Nabokov has an interesting line in the introduction (coming some 30 years after he wrote DESPAIR in Russian): "Hermann and Humbert are alike only in the sense that two dragons painted by the same artist at different periods of his life resemble each other. Both are neurotic scoundrels, yet there is a green lane in Paradise where Humbert is permitted to wander at dusk once a year; but Hell shall never parole Hermann."
This seems odd - though both are unreliable narrators who commit a vile crime, the insidiousness of Humbert is far more extreme, and not just because LOLITA is a superior novel. Humbert's charm makes him disturbing, while Hermann is so unlikable that we can never be immersed in his mind. Though he is fully in control of the narrative, he is mainly a source of derision.
Now, there is much pleasure here in what the reader knows and the narrator doesn't - the relationship between Ardalion and Hermann's wife is a brilliant piece of writing, with lots of great humor coming out of Hermann's not knowing what is so obviously happening. This book also has the strangest supporting character I can remember, a man named Orlovious who is somehow instrumental to the plot, in a large percentage of the book's scenes, and never once explained or described. I enjoyed the many digs at Dostoyevsky too ("Dusty") - the whole thing can be read as a Dostoyevsky parody, now that I think about it. But despite the evident strengths, this is a minor book by a major writer -3.7 stars.
Rating About Books Despair
Ratings: 3.92 From 7384 Users | 474 ReviewsCriticize About Books Despair
Seriously, I didn't like this. Yeah, I like how Vladimir Nabokov writes but this book just doesn't have the sparkle, the humor or the polished writing of Lolita or Speak, Memory or other books by the author. It feels like a piece that still needs more work.or maybe you can work something to death. Look at the history of this book. Despair first came out in 1934 as a serial in the Russian literary journal Sovremennye. It was published as a book in 1936, translated by the author into English inOur fabulously droll narrator is out for a stroll when he sees someone asleep under a tree. He nudges the sleeper's face with his foot and has the shock of his life. He is looking down at his own face. Nabokov's narrator, we soon learn, lives in a kind of hall of mirrors. And who wouldn't go insane in such an abode? And he has lots of fun playing with the notion that art mirrors life or vice versa. Our hero plots a murder as a work of art. Every detail required to serve the execution of the
Wild, wicked, stylish, funny, in only the way Nabokov could write. On every page you sense the fun he's having, and boy, is it infectious.
That's it for my seventh Nabokov -- Despair, or Отчаяние, a "far more sonorous howl", as Nabokov writes in the introduction to the work. This represents Nabokov's "first serious attempt to use English for what may be loosely termed an artistic purpose." The writing is, as you kind of expect from Nabokov, stellar. The story is interesting, and it does not require as much from the reader as some of his other books do -- indeed, Nabokov writes that the book has a "plain structure and pleasing
The first part of it was tedious. I could see Nabokov was a great writer but still, it was tedious. I struggled through first 80-90 pages and was awarded for my efforts with a brilliant second part of the book. I was actually sitting on the tube going to work, reading it and muttering to myself "Oh, brilliant, brilliant".Hermann is such a perverse narrator. He plays with you and he is not to be trusted. One of the very few books when I felt I created a relationship with the narrator. Don't be
The spoils of Nabokov's love of language are in fine form in "Despair," complete with the wordplay, metafictive elements, and literary devices -- all exaggerated to an impressive and hilarious extent -- that you'd expect from our literary genius/mad scientist. "Despair" in a nutshell: at one point, the novel's author -- who never published the novel himself, but merely sent the manuscript to Mr. Nabokov -- weighs the benefits of this or that name for his novel. "Crime and Pun" is one of the
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