Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93942 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

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.

Overrated
Call me a philistine or a dilettante but I found this book tiresome to read due to the overabundance of self-indulgent and irritating "wordplay", especially the gratuitous and facile "puns". Big deal! As my French is practically non-existent I had to frequently consult Nabokov`s translations in his notes at the back of the book, which was really very offputting. I`m surprised that I finished the book, to be honest.
Life is too short to have to go to so much trouble just to get through a novel.