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Title: Ada, or Ardor : A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0-679-72522-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 February, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (41 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great
Comment: This book arouse my strongest envy for the man who wrote it. Let alone that the author uses the English language with a skill that few people ever had, and not considering the sparks of his cleverness that glitter in every page, and not even mentioning the author's extensive knowledge that shines through every paragraph (on enthomology, literature, ...) and the witty disrespect of the author (he's great when he attributes to Mademoiselle Lariviére - a lessere character of the novel - one of the most silly tales written by Guy de Maupassant, mocking the old lady for having written such a stupid story). What is really disconcerting in this book is Nabokov's skill to see, to recognise and to reproduce beauty, capturing the beautiness of a place, of a day, of a person under the pure and immortal form of the artistic creation. The impression that this book gave me is that the author lived several steps above ground, where we all live. He definitely was a lucky guy.
Rating: 5
Summary: *sigh*
Comment: If I were stuck on a desert island and could bring only one book, this would be it. Not only is it passionate, beautiful, and witty, but it is so many levels deep that one could spend a lifetime tracing its paths. Lolita is beautiful and accessible, and Pale Fire is deep and intellectually fascinating, but Ada is the pinnacle of Nabokov's skill. His use of acronym alone could be the subject of a year's study. Best of all, his heady wordgames only augment the emotional power of his work. This is not a passive read. One must work and cry simultaneously.
Rating: 5
Summary: The texture, sadness and joys of memory
Comment: Adding to this compilation of 40 reviews seems superfluous, and yet I love Nabokov's "Ada" far too much not to recommend it to any who may not yet have read it.
Nabokov actually provides a review of his own in the book's final paragraphs: "Ardis Hall -- the Ardors and Arbors of Ardis -- this is the leitmotiv rippling through "Ada", an ample and delightful chronicle, whose principal part is staged in a dream-bright America -- for are not our childhood memories comparable to Vineland-borne caravelles, indolently encircled by the white birds of dreams?
"Not the least adornment of the chronicle is the delicacy of pictorial detail: a latticed gallery; a painted ceiling; a pretty plaything stranded among the forget-me-nots of a brook; butterflies and butterfly orchids in the margin of the romance; a misty view descried from marble steps; a doe in gaze in the ancestral parks; and much, much more."
It's a wonder how powerfully "Ada" connects with readers, since Nabokov seemingly makes no concessions to them and anchors the book so strongly in the unique attributes of his own biography. Drawing heavily on English, Russian and French and employing a complexity of exposition, Nabokov frustrates efforts for a quick or casual reading. Yet his art serves to create a psychological displacement and opens a doorway through which the reader can explore the texture, the sadness and joys of remembrance. This is the point I would stress, since the book's characters and plot are nicely summarized in other reviews you'll find here.
Memories. I recall a first, startling encounter with eight improbable chapters of "Ada" (the night of the Burning Barn!) in the April, 1969 issue of Playboy magazine. Over 35 years, I've enjoyed perhaps six re-readings of the book, with each reading uncovering new depths of the chronicle and each leaving memories of its own. This month, I took "Ada" with me on a business trip to Shanghai. The physical and temporal displacement of the trans-Pacific flight complemented the book's style perfectly. I read the book, literally, from a new place. And that Sunday found me at ease in the midst of my bustling Shanghai hotel's brunch -- sipping champagne and slowly, very slowly, working my way through the book's now familiar prose. In that antiterra, Van Veen may have joined me for a bit.
You'll have guessed this is a favorite book. I particularly recommend to you the Vintage addition of "Ada" with its helpful notes and because it is also the basis for the references in Brian Boyd's "Nabokov's Ada" -- should you eventually wish to compare your reading with that of someone who has studied it deeply.
Please buy and read Nabokov's "Ada" for the memories -- and much, much more
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Title: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723420 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 April, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by VLADIMIR NABOKOV ISBN: 0679729976 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723412 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 June, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723161 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Speak, Memory : An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov ISBN: 0679723390 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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