Comments on: Stories by Vladimir Nabokov

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:50:40 +0000

estelle, well, I loved it! It doesn’t really compare to any other style, and it is just great. I hope you enjoy the stories!

By: estelle

estelle — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:07:33 +0000

I saw your review at the short story challenge blog. I’ve been looking for another Nabokov book to read (I”ve only read Lolita) but I didn’t realise he wrote short stories as well. I love being able to compare an author’s work in two forms — in this case novel and short story. I love Chekhov’s short stories so I am definitely going to get onto this. Plus I just finished reading a Hemingway novel, so I’d like to read some paragraph-long sentences, just for a change! Also, love a story with an embedded mystery…now I’m too excited.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:44:32 +0000

saber, I haven’t yet read Lolita, but I plan on it. I love the literary beauty of these stories. Highly recommend them!

By: saber

saber — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:26:08 +0000

of late i perused Lolita by this auther; the philosophy behind the masterpiece was extraordinary. i hope u too give it a read . i’m about to skim off perusing some of his short stories just for the sake of their literary beauty.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:58:07 +0000

Amateur Reader, I wonder, in general, how many people read just the first few stories in a “collected works” collection and don’t feel impressed!

By: Amateur Reader

Amateur Reader — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:03:55 +0000

Not just you, me too. Also, the editors of the New Yorker – they had published a number of Nabokov stories but passed on this one because they missed the trick. A hint is that the type of puzzle that needs to be solved is specifically mentioned at least twice. My dissent from Nabokov is that not everyone wants to solve puzzles while reading stories!

By the way, your advice on starting at the end or in the middle of the Collected Stories is exactly right.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:33:53 +0000

Amateur Reader, thanks for the dissent! I was tricked! I must go reread it now. I was afraid I’d misread something: there is so much in so many of these stories.

By: Amateur Reader

Amateur Reader — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:38:02 +0000

A dissent on “The Vane Sisters”: the sisters have affected the narrator’s life significantly, even from beyond the grave, but he doesn’t realize it. There are clues embedded in his own telling of the story. Actual clues, and an actual trick ending. Nabokov said this trick could only be used once every thousand years, something like that.

These are certainly some of my favorite short stories. Nice review.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:53:29 +0000

Myrthe, bloggers have been pretty influential on my reading choices! His stories really are great!

Eva, glad to hear you also like Nabokov’s writing. (Long time, no see! Thanks for your comment and welcome back to the blogging world.)

By: Eva

Eva — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:44:49 +0000

I love Nabokov’s writing as well.

By: Myrthe

Myrthe — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:52:05 +0000

My parents have one of Nabokov’s novels on their shelves (not Lolita, but I don’t remember which one) and for a long time I have been tempted to pick it up. Always I was a bit hesitant because of Nabokov’s “one famous work”. This post and your other one on Nabokov and the many great reviews of Lolita on other blogs are very much on the way to convincing me to pick up one of his works. I might even read Lolita. The power of bookbloggers!!

But, like you say, the guy wrote so much more than just Lolita, that I would like to read something else by him as well.

Thanks so much for this review, Rebecca!

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:24:56 +0000

Melody, I think I’m just about convinced to give Lolita a read. Thanks for your review…

By: Melody

Melody — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:58:34 +0000

Thanks for the great post, Rebecca! I’ll definitely check out his other works after reading Lolita.

By: Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:58:45 +0000

Amanda, the book cover is a link to the Amazon paperback but of course the library is always a better option. (except, with 650+ pages, I had to try to scramble to get it read before it was due…)

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 01:23:37 +0000

I need to get ahold of his short stories!