Product Description

Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, this is Nabokov's 'other' great love story; with some of Lolita's perversity and much more playfulness. Romance follows Ada and Van from their first childhood meeting through eight years of rapture, in a book which is regarded by many to be Nabokov's richest and most ambitious.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98687 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
This begins as a parody of the Russian novel and ends as a review of itself. The 500-odd pages in between chart the fortunes of Adelaida (Ada) and Ivan (Van), two incestuous lovers who are really Nabokov's excuse for a last grand stylistic firework show before his death seven years later. I was introduced to it by quotation - 'The toot-toot of the two-two to Toulose' being offered as the most untranslatable line conceivable. Some time later, I decided to search for Nabokov's untranslatable train. Quel horaire! There is no 'two-two to Toulouse', although there is a 'two-to-two', of which Nabokov, who knew everything, must have been aware. His decision to excise that surplus 'to' is answer enough to those who would charge this novel with an excess bordering on self-parody. Review by LAWRENCE NORFOLK, author of The Pope's Rhinoceros (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Vladimir Nabokov is one of the greatest literary icons of the twentieth century. His work is published around the world, and a number of his books continue to be best-selling titles, most obviously in the case of his famous work LOLITA.

Customer Reviews

Better than most could know, so grab a dictionary.
Honestly, there is more in this book than can be taken in upon first reading, it is staggeringly good. Nabokov rated it his best and, of course, it is. Yes, Lolita is a better 300 page beach book, Pale fire is hilarious and genius and original, but this is mesmerisingly complex and beautiful, a rich tapestry of love and philosophy and sex and family turmoil and - it is better. It is a better book judging by any criteria that Nabokov would have deemed worthwhile.

It's not for everyone, I mean I struggled with it and I REALLY REALLY wanted to read it, and I barely broke the surface. If you want a romp look elsewhere. Of course you have to work for this, it's rich and deep and subtle but ultimately rewarding. It's also hugely pretentious, but that's Nabokov. He knew he was the man, he knew he was smart and he filled this novel, as he did his others, with arrogant wordplay, quips, literary jigsaws and a world of other things. Also, it takes place on another earth, another dimension and the....I can't even describe it.

Just read it, take your time and don't worry if you don't get it because you will, eventually, after you realise that Nabokov is better than you and that it's ok to admit that.

O.

Tiresome
I read Lolita and, of course, it's great. So I had high hopes. But this is just too much like hard work for small change. Lolita is full of tricky word-play, delightful linguistic flourishes, but it's also an incredibly good read. This is just too pleased with its own minutiae, with its own ceaselessly dense detail and frippery and cleverness. It's boring. It's a turnoff. I've heard it compared to Joyce but I don't think this is fair on Joyce. When you look at a novel like Ulysses, what is most resonant, what is most obvious, is that Joyce's overriding intent, his major concern, is not to spin zinc-bright witty prose with acrobatic dexterity. His main purpose is to present, sympathetically, faithfully, compassionately, the people who populate his story. The delightful prose he uses to do this is only a part of the pleasure. Ada or Ardor, to my mind, has no intent beyond that of a dazzling writer determined to dazzle. And dazzle he does. And dazzle. And dazzle. Until you're blind with it.

Obviously, this depends entirely on the person and no one can really say with any authority, but I just didn't get the impression that Nabokov was compelled to write this by anything other than an over-inflated, runaway sense of his own sparkling brilliance. It's just boring. Self-indulgence to the point of onanism.

Of Space and Time
The key to understanding this novel and it's inevitable enjoyment is revealed by Nabokov's insight into the illusory nature of time and space. The story is set in a fantastical Eden like world of aristocratic privilege, incest, botanical and zoological manifestations and subverted morality. The essence of this historical memoir is seen through the recollections of Van and his one and only 'true' love Ada. Their memories are relics of a distant past (spanning ninety years), contorted by their childhood passion, shaped and manipulated by subsequent events, and deformed by the nature of time itself. The present, or 'nowness' being the only tangible impression that can ever have any meaning for conscious thought. Indeed it is this aspect of the novel that controls the parallel universe in which the story unfolds. Memories that are dependent on the recollections of the moment and not based on an exact sequence of past events. These events are to be seen as shadows of human existance, lengthening and shortening over time, nourishing thought with emotional intensities and altering perceptions of the past. Through this vista Nabokov offers a lush insight into the nature of love and decay.