The best works of Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich left, without exaggeration, a huge creative heritage to his descendants. The main books published by Nabokov in our country are works whose list can be compiled as follows: "Mashenka" (1929), "King, Queen, Jack" (1928), written in 1930 "Protection of Luzhin" and " Return of Chorba ", in 1932 -" Feat ", in 1936 -" Circle ", in 1937-38 -" Dar ", as well as" The Spies "(1938) and others. At the same time he published many poems, such dramas as "Death", "Grandfather", "Plus", "Wanderers", many translations, including works for children, for example L. Carroll "Anya in Wonderland" , Plays in prose. All of them were written in Russian, but this author also wrote in English.

What will you find in this article?

In this article, we will present you the basic creations that Nabokov created. The works, the list of which is offered to your attention, includes both written in Russian and English. At the last author worked when he lived in the United States.

The American period includes Nabokov's works "Lolita," "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight," "Ghostly Things," "Under the Sign of Bastards," "Look at Harlequins!" This author also translated Russian poets of the 19th century into English. He commented and translated in part, in particular, "Eugene Onegin", published lectures on Russian literature, read by him at Cornwall University and Walesley College.

His pen also has a significant dramatic legacy: Vladimir Vladimirovich wrote nine plays, as well as a script for the film based on the novel "Lolita."

We describe the most famous works of Nabokov, their characteristics and brief content.

"Mashenka"

This first novel by the author, written in 1926, is the most "Russian" of all his works in this genre. In it the reader is enveloped by the atmosphere of the phantom of being, strangeness. The work depicts the true fate that Nabokov's talent turned into fictional. In "Other Shores," he in 1954 outlined the actual incidents that gave birth to the novel, calling the real place of action - the banks of the Oderj River, located near Petrograd. Thus, the work is semi-biographical.

The book describes the life in the Russian hostel, located in Berlin, Russian emigrants. Ganin, the main character, learns in the story of Alferov, his neighbor, his former love and decides to meet the girl at the station. But at the last moment he realizes that the past can not be returned, and therefore he goes to another station, deciding to leave Berlin for good.

Already in this work there is the main cross-cutting theme in Nabokov's work: the theme of two houses. The house where the protagonist lives temporarily, not only for trains, but also for the reader is transparent - it is a symbol of the past as such. At the end of the work, Ganin finally understands that the image dear to his heart Masha has always remained in this place "shadows." And then another house, just being built, appears next.

"Protection of the Luzhin"

This work was created in 1930, this is the third Russian novel by Vladimir Nabokov, who brought him to the first row of literary Russian abroad, making the author a great name. The plot is based on the events of the life of another writer - Kurt von Bardeleben, who in 1924 committed suicide. Reader for the vicissitudes of the life of a one-sided, though brilliant, hero, mad and gifted Russian chess player Alexander Ivanovich Luzhin, who emigrated from the country, opens the most important and permanent theme of the writer's work - the repetition and development of secret themes in the fate of man. The chess defense developed by the main character gradually becomes an allegory of protection from real life, in which the consciousness, traumatized by the disease, sees the sinister actions of unknown forces like chess moves. In repeating the events of his biography, Alexander Ivanovich sees the fateful moves of his opponent - fate, and, not finding an opportunity to unravel her secret, he chooses to leave the game - the only possible solution.

"Invitation to the execution"

We continue to describe the works of Nabokov. The next novel, which we will consider, was created in 1936. Time and place of action is not so easy to determine - you can imagine conditionally that the writer depicts the remote future of our country, when the civilization has stalled and degenerated. The protagonist of the work should be executed for the so-called "opacity" and "gnoseological vileness", it is assumed that he must accept and passively accept his demise. However, at the last moment, he understands all the illusory nature of the world in which he exists, renounces non-resistance and emerges from this situation as a winner.

"Gift"

The next creation, which belongs to the list of "best works of Nabokov," was created by him in 1938. It is in the form of a meta-novel, which combines poetry and prose. The work is written in Russian during the writer's life in Germany. The main character has some features of the biography of the author himself: he is an emigrant, a young poet who is beginning, the son of a famous scientist who lives during the events taking place in the work in a rented apartment. Its owners are a former prosecutor who is an anti-Semite, as well as his wife and her daughter from their first marriage. The latter falls in love with the main character. For a number of reasons, the relationship of the beloved can not enter into any period of intimacy. The chapter "Dara", the fourth in the novel, is "a book in the book," its content is a presentation of ideas and biographies of Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

"Lolita"

The next in chronological work of Nabokov, referring to his best creations is "Lolita." This novel was written in 1955. According to many literary critics, the story of how an adult man was fervently carried away by a girl who was only twelve years old is the pinnacle of the whole heritage, created by Nabokov Vladimir. The works that make up the main part of his work can not be imagined without mentioning "Lolita". According to the plot, the protagonist torments the girl with her unrequited love and eventually loses her. The work of Nabokov "Lolita" brought the author world fame.

"Pnin"

This creation was created by Vladimir Vladimirovich in the USA, published in English, is the fourth novel in this language. His protagonist is Timofei Pnin, a professor of literature and the Russian language. He is portrayed by the writer with mild irony as a representative of the Russian intelligentsia of the old school, trying to become his own in the academic environment of America, but comically does not get along with the language spoken by the students that, along with his absent-mindedness, amusing appearance and awkwardness in handling objects, turns this Figure in the local curious attraction. Gradually, however, this queer, unlucky and touchingly absurd title character unfolds before us as a multifaceted, complex personality, in the fate of which the moments of true tragedy and higher happiness united, whose life, like any human, forms a mixture of inextricable sadness and unspeakable charm ... The background on which the narrative unfolds is the picture of the life of the Russian emigrants of the first wave in the USA.

"Laura and her original"

We continue our analysis of Nabokov's works . The novel, which we will consider at the very end of the article, was started by the author in 1977, remained unfinished and was published only after Nabokov's death, contrary to the will of his father, Dmitry Vladimirovich, the writer's son. The basis of the book is the relationship with the present and former beloved Philip Weild, a neurologist. This work is an original, brilliant and revolutionary in its essence thing, which is, as it were, the quintessence of the work of such a writer as Nabokov.

The works, best in the opinion of critics, were briefly considered by us in this article. Their list can be continued to get a better acquaintance with the creativity of this author. In the beginning, we listed other of his novels and plays, which you can turn to. Also, in order to better understand the work of Vladimir Vladimirovich, you can watch films on the works of Nabokov. There are quite a few screenings, both Russian and foreign. An example is Adrian Lyne's Lolita, released in 1997.