Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
Author of Lolita
About the Author
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nobokov was born April 22, 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia to a wealthy family. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge. When he left Russia, he moved to Paris and eventually to the United States in 1940. He taught at Wellesley College and Cornell University. Nobokov is revered show more as one of the great American novelists of the 20th Century. Before he moved to the United States, he wrote under the pseudonym Vladimir Serin. Among those titles, were Mashenka, his first novel and Invitation to a Beheading. The first book he wrote in English was The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. He is best know for his work Lolita which was made into a movie in 1962. In addition to novels, he also wrote poetry and short stories. He was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction seven times, but never won it. Nabokov died July 2, 1977. show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Note that Nabokov/Sirin published two works called Соглядатай 'The spy': a novella first published in the émigré journal Sovremennye zapiski in 1930 and translated into English as The Eye, and a story collection including the novella published as a book in Paris in 1938. The latter has recently been republished by the Russian company Azbuka as Совершенство 'Perfection,' the name of one of the stories. If there are any LT copies of the 1938 collection, they should be combined with Совершенство [Sovershenstvo].
Image credit: Vladimir Nabokov, 1 mai 1975
Series
Works by Vladimir Nabokov
Novels and Memoirs 1941-1951 : The Real Life of Sebastian Knight / Bend Sinister / Speak, Memory (1996) 375 copies, 2 reviews
Novels 1969–1974: Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle / Transparent Things / Look at the Harlequins! (1996) 319 copies, 1 review
Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940-1971, Revised and Expanded Edition (1979) — Author — 287 copies
Think, Write, Speak: Uncollected Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Letters to the Editor (2019) 130 copies, 2 reviews
Notes on Prosody; From the Commentary to the Author's Translation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (Bollingen Series, 72) (1969) 50 copies
De Amerikaanse romans Deel 1 1941-1962 22 copies
Een liefde voor Proust : Op zoek naar de verloren tijd in 22 leeservaringen (2002) 19 copies, 1 review
Verzamelde verhalen 1 15 copies
Verhalen. 2 14 copies
Nine stories 7 copies
De kunst van het vertalen / Vladimir Nabokov. De kunst van het niet-vertalen / Robbert-Jan Henkes en Erik Bindervoet (2005) 7 copies
First Love 5 copies
Пушкин, или правда и правдоподобие 5 copies
Gesammelte Werke. Band 12: Späte Romane: Durchsichtige Dinge. Sieh doch die Harlekine!: BD 12 (2002) 4 copies
Vladimir Nabokov. Sobranie sochinenij russkogo perioda v 5 tomah. Tom 1. 1918-1925. Rasskazy. Nikolka (2000) 4 copies
Круг: Рассказ 4 copies
Стихи 4 copies
Лев Толстой 4 copies
"That in Aleppo Once...": A Story 4 copies
Хват 3 copies
Solus Rex [short story] 3 copies
Sobranie sochinenii amerikanskogo perioda v piati tomakh: Stoletie so dnia rozhdeniia, 1899-1999 (Russian Edition) (1997) 3 copies, 1 review
Natasha (story in The New Yorker) 3 copies
Том 3: Дар / Отчаяние 2 copies
Revue Europe 791 : Vladimir Nabokov — Contributor — 2 copies
Mashenka / Lolita 2 copies
Родина: стихотворение 2 copies
Василий Шишков: Рассказ 2 copies
Sobranie sochinenii russkogo perioda v piati tomakh: Stoletie so dnia rozhdeniia : 1899-1999 (Russian Edition) (2000) 2 copies, 1 review
Пьесы 2 copies
Anniversary notes 2 copies
Эссе и стихи из журнала "Карусель" 2 copies
Vier gedichten 2 copies
Университетская поэма 2 copies
Семь стихотворений. 1953 2 copies
A Russian Beauty [short story] 2 copies
Памяти И. В. Гессена 2 copies
Die Klingel 2 copies
Stories 2 copies
Символы Роу 1 copy
О правителях: Стихотворения 1 copy
Обида. Лебеда: Рассказы 1 copy
Романы. Рассказы. Эссе 1 copy
Обида 1 copy
Стихи голкипера Набокова 1 copy
Два Стихотворения 1 copy
Стихотворения. Рассказы 1 copy
Письма П.А. Перцову 1 copy
Родина. К России: стихи 1 copy
Первое стихотворение 1 copy
Из архива В.В. Набокова 1 copy
Письмо к А.В. Амфитеатрову 1 copy
Письма к В.Ф. Маркову 1 copy
Писатели и эпоха 1 copy
Пасхальный дождь: Рассказ 1 copy
Письма Набокова 1 copy
Письма к Глебу Струве 1 copy
ナボコフの塊――エッセイ集1921-1975 1 copy
Письмо к С. В. Потресову 1 copy
Письма В.Набокова к Гессенам 1 copy
Посещение музея: Рассказы 1 copy
Пошляки и пошлость 1 copy
Аня в стране чудес (Anya v strane chudes. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) (Russian Edition) 1 copy
Три шахматных сонета 1 copy
Лолита (Russian Edition) 1 copy
Отчаяние (Russian Edition) 1 copy
Подлец 1 copy
Королёк 1 copy
Петербург 1 copy
Удар крыла: Рассказ 1 copy
Весна: Стихотворение 1 copy
Слава: Стихотворение 1 copy
Парижская поэма: Стихи 1 copy
Читатели рождены свободными 1 copy
Случайность: Рассказ 1 copy
Перо: Стихотворение 1 copy
Крым: Стихотворения 1 copy
В Египте: Стихотворение 1 copy
Король, дама, валет : Роман 1 copy
Лирика 1 copy
Стихи разных лет 1 copy
Рассказы 1 copy
На мели 1 copy
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) 1 copy
Nabokov Vladimir 1 copy
The Potato Elf [short story] 1 copy
De verhalen 1 copy
Verzamelde verhalen 1 copy
Victor Meets Pnin 1 copy
Théâtre 1 copy
Ulven kommer 1 copy
Einzelheiten eines Sonnenuntergangs: Sämtliche Erzählungen 1921 bis 1932 (German Edition) (2021) 1 copy
The Complete Short Stories 1 copy
On Metamorphosis 1 copy
Agenda literaria 2018 1 copy
Cinco poemas 1 copy
Exile 1 copy
Eseji Prust Kafka 1 copy
Leben erfinden 1 copy
Stikhotvoreniia i poemy 1 copy
De swaluw 1 copy
De aanzeggers 1 copy
De autoweg 1 copy
Het woord 1 copy
Dubbelpraat 1 copy
Erwin: een sprookje 1 copy
Poezie uit "De Gave" 1 copy
De haven 1 copy
Gardens and Parks 1 copy
The Leonardo [short story] 1 copy
Lips to Lips [short story] 1 copy
Torpid Smoke [short story] 1 copy
The Refrigerator Awakes 1 copy
A Poem 1 copy
On Discovering a Butterfly 1 copy
A Forgotten Poet: A Story 1 copy
Portrait of my Uncle 1 copy
Colette 1 copy
Portrait of my mother 1 copy
Tamara 1 copy
Lantern Slides 1 copy
Esej o Džojsu 1 copy
Месть: Рассказ 1 copy
ナボコフ・コレクション 賜物 父の蝶 1 copy
ナボコフ・コレクション ルージン・ディフェンス 密偵 1 copy
Стихотворения (1929-1951) 1 copy
Второе добавление к "Дару" 1 copy
Дракон: Рассказ 1 copy
Воспоминания 1 copy
Заметки переводчика 1 copy
Случайность. Драка: Рассказы 1 copy
К России: Стихотворения 1 copy
Адмиралтейская игла 1 copy
Из литературного наследия 1 copy
Исакий: Стихотворения 1 copy
Катастрофа: Рассказ 1 copy
Качурину: Стихи 1 copy
Ланселот: Рассказ 1 copy
RARE Vladimir Nabokov's QUARTET - stories - 1st/1st HCDJ 1966 - Lolita - fine [Hardcover] unknown (1980) 1 copy
Contos completos - Volume 1 1 copy
Vrajitorul 1 copy
Sabrane priče II 1 copy
TriQuarterly COVER STORY "FOR VLADIMIR NABOKOV ON HIS 70th BIRTHDAY" ( WINTER 1979, NUMBER 17 ) 1 copy
دعوة إلى جلسة قطع الرأس 1 copy
CAIXA NABOKOV 1 copy
Solgun ate 1 copy
Priglashenie na kazn'. Drugie berega. Zaschita Luzhina. Kamera obskura. Dar (Knizhnaya polka) (2006) 1 copy
Maïakovski. Poemas 1 copy
[Textures of time : a dream experiment, by Vladimir Nabokov. TLS, October 31, 2014, pp.13-16.] 1 copy
Christmas [short story] 1 copy
La doppia vita 1 copy
Invitation Au Supplice 1 copy
Roi, Dame, Valet 1 copy
Przejrzystość rzeczy 1 copy
Associated Works
A Hero of Our Time (1840) — Afterword, some editions; Translator, some editions — 4,229 copies, 70 reviews
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (1976) — Contributor — 1,216 copies, 3 reviews
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [Signet Classic] (1980) — Introduction, some editions — 1,170 copies, 32 reviews
Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker (2001) — Contributor — 790 copies, 5 reviews
The World of the Short Story: A 20th Century Collection (1986) — Contributor — 512 copies, 4 reviews
World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time (1998) — Contributor — 499 copies, 2 reviews
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume Two: E. E. Cummings to May Swenson (2000) — Contributor — 444 copies, 1 review
You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe (1994) — Contributor — 414 copies, 3 reviews
The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories (1986) — Contributor — 381 copies, 3 reviews
Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times (1994) — Contributor — 354 copies, 5 reviews
American Fantastic Tales : Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940's to Now (2009) — Contributor — 299 copies, 5 reviews
The Song of Igor's Campaign, An Epic of the Twelfth Century (1800) — Translator, some editions — 249 copies, 3 reviews
The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology of Writing on the Subject of Memory Loss (2000) — Contributor — 228 copies, 2 reviews
The Delighted States: A Book of Novels, Romances, & Their Unknown Translators, Containing Ten Languages, Set on Four Continents, & Accompanied by ... Illustrations, & a Variety of… (2007) 187 copies, 4 reviews
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 162 copies, 1 review
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume 2: 1865 to Present (1979) — Contributor, some editions — 137 copies
Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse, Vol. 2; Commentary and Index (1991) — Translator, some editions — 110 copies, 3 reviews
Great Short Stories: Russian, Japanese, American, Irish, French, English (2007) — Contributor — 36 copies
Penguins 60s Classics (Loose as the Wind; Now Remember; Florence Nightingale; Rumpole and the Younger Generation; Elephant Tales; Scenes from Havian Life; Less is More Please;… (1996) — Contributor; Contributor — 12 copies
The Bitter air of exile : Russian writers in the West, 1922-1972 (1977) — Contributor — 10 copies, 1 review
Nabokov's Fifth Arc: Nabokov and Others on His Life's Work (The Dan Danciger Publication Series) (1982) — Contributor — 7 copies
De mooiste verhalen van James Baldwin, John Berger, Jorge Luis Borges, Jane Bowles, Joseph Brodsky, Charles Bukowski, Wi (1990) — Contributor — 6 copies
Sylvia Plath's Tomato Soup Cake: A Compendium of Classic Authors' Favourite Recipes (2024) — Contributor — 6 copies
Gefährliche Ferien - Bretagne und Atlantikküste: mit Martin Walker und vielen anderen (detebe) (2019) — Contributor — 1 copy
Saint Petersburg in Russian Poetry of the 18th to the Early 20th Century: A Poetic Anthology (2001) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
- Other names
- Darkbloom, Vivian
Sirin, V. - Birthdate
- 1899-04-22
- Date of death
- 1977-07-02
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Home education
Tenishev school, St. Petersburg, Russia
University of Cambridge (Trinity College) (B.A. Zoology, Slavic and Romance languages) (1922) - Occupations
- novelist
teacher
entomologist
lepidopterist
university professor - Organizations
- Harvard University
Wellesley College
Cornell University
Museum of Comparative Zoology
Olympia Press - Awards and honors
- American National Medal for Literature (1973)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 1951) - Relationships
- Nabokov, Vladimir Dmitrievich (father)
Nabokov, Dmitri (son)
Wonlar-Larsky, Nadine (aunt)
Felsen, Yuri (colleague) - Nationality
- Russia (birth)
USA (naturalized) - Birthplace
- St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
- Places of residence
- St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Berlin, Germany
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Montreux, Switzerland
Ithaca, New York, USA (show all 10)
New York, New York, USA
Ashland, Oregon, USA
Livadiya, Crimea, Ukrainian People's Republic
England, UK - Place of death
- Montreux, Switzerland
- Burial location
- Clarens Cemetery, Montreux, Switzerland
- Map Location
- Russia
- Disambiguation notice
- Note that Nabokov/Sirin published two works called Соглядатай 'The spy': a novella first published in the émigré journal Sovremennye zapiski in 1930 and translated into English as The Eye, and a story collection including the novella published as a book in Paris in 1938. The latter has recently been republished by the Russian company Azbuka as Совершенство 'Perfection,' the name of one of the stories. If there are any LT copies of the 1938 collection, they should be combined with Совершенство [Sovershenstvo].
Members
Discussions
Folio Archives 449: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 2015 in Folio Society Devotees (October 2025)
**Lolita Group Read in 2013 Category Challenge (February 2022)
You're whining about X! Oh yeah? What about Y, huh?! in Touchstone Testing (August 2019)
Group Read, January 2019: Ada in 1001 Books to read before you die (February 2019)
March 2014: Vladimir Nabokov in Monthly Author Reads (April 2014)
my relationship with Lolita in Club Read 2014 (January 2014)
ADA or ardor A Family Chronicle in Nabokov! (November 2013)
Pale Fire and the Cold War in Nabokov! (October 2013)
A question for the group: is Nabokov Russian? in Fans of Russian authors (September 2012)
Nabokov on Kindle in Fans of Russian authors (February 2011)
Reviews
I think what the scariest thing about this book is not what actually happens in it (which is thankfully fictional), but what it reveals about ourselves. We, the readers, are the real jury here, with the power of either condemning or acquitting Humbert ditto. But Humbty-Dumbty is so suave and such a smooth operator that he spellbinds us into his little game of sensational excuses and slippery lies. I'm ashamed to admit at times I actually found myself sympathizing with old wily Humblepie. show more Like a demon he tempts us with poisoned candy apples and Turkish delights and we gormandize them ravenously, and we only realize what we've done once it's too late. What a exceptional, ghastly book. show less
Sí, la historia es interesante, estás pendiente página tras página de lo que les sucede a los personajes, de qué perversidad perpetrará Humbert, pero lo más grande de esta novela es cómo está contada. La poderosa prosa de Nabokov es excepcional y bella, su utilización del lenguaje sublime. Es casi como poesía narrada. Hay párrafos que son verdadera música, de verdad.
Hace años empecé este libro y, acabada la primera parte, abandoné su lectura por otra. Pensaba que el germen de show more la historia ya estaba explicada y que el resto no sería tan interesante. Me equivocaba.
No nos equivoquemos, estamos ante las memorias póstumas de un pederasta, que ya en la primera página del prólogo, se nos cuenta que ha cometido un crimen, por lo que dichas memorias nos llegan desde prisión. Humbert Humbert es un bastardo, no cabe duda. Y aun así, ejerce tal fascinación en el lector que es imposible no sentirse atraído por su historia y personalidad. Porque Humbert es un enfermo, con un deseo enfermizo, y como tal, llega un momento en que es digno de lástima, al igual que Lolita.
Humbert es un europeo que se establece en Norteamérica. Es un profesor dedicado a traducir obras del francés, y decide buscar una pensión donde vivir. Entonces conoce a Lolita, una niña de 12 años que lo trastorna y obsesiona por completo. Su misión a partir de entonces será seducirla...
La novela empieza con un 6, sube hasta un 9, baja hasta un 7, vuelve a subir a un 8, y en los capítulos finales llega al 10. Humbert Humbert deja una huella indeleble en la memoria del lector. Es, sin lugar a dudas, uno de los personajes más logrados de la literatura universal.
'Lolita' es una novela-con-temporizador, es decir, tiempo después de haberla terminado, tu memoria es a-saltada por imágenes y detales que, curiosamente, no son los más trascendentales. Y ésto es maravilloso. show less
Hace años empecé este libro y, acabada la primera parte, abandoné su lectura por otra. Pensaba que el germen de show more la historia ya estaba explicada y que el resto no sería tan interesante. Me equivocaba.
No nos equivoquemos, estamos ante las memorias póstumas de un pederasta, que ya en la primera página del prólogo, se nos cuenta que ha cometido un crimen, por lo que dichas memorias nos llegan desde prisión. Humbert Humbert es un bastardo, no cabe duda. Y aun así, ejerce tal fascinación en el lector que es imposible no sentirse atraído por su historia y personalidad. Porque Humbert es un enfermo, con un deseo enfermizo, y como tal, llega un momento en que es digno de lástima, al igual que Lolita.
Humbert es un europeo que se establece en Norteamérica. Es un profesor dedicado a traducir obras del francés, y decide buscar una pensión donde vivir. Entonces conoce a Lolita, una niña de 12 años que lo trastorna y obsesiona por completo. Su misión a partir de entonces será seducirla...
La novela empieza con un 6, sube hasta un 9, baja hasta un 7, vuelve a subir a un 8, y en los capítulos finales llega al 10. Humbert Humbert deja una huella indeleble en la memoria del lector. Es, sin lugar a dudas, uno de los personajes más logrados de la literatura universal.
'Lolita' es una novela-con-temporizador, es decir, tiempo después de haberla terminado, tu memoria es a-saltada por imágenes y detales que, curiosamente, no son los más trascendentales. Y ésto es maravilloso. show less
Lolita: Introduction by Martin Amis (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) by Vladimir Nabokov
Yeah, I think you've likely heard of Lolita. It's astonishing however how this novel seems to get characterized, in blurbs such as the one here on Goodreads. The "freedom and sophistication" in the telling of "a love story almost shocking in its beauty and tenderness", and "most of all, it is a meditation on love". How different and much less appealing the novel would seem I guess if advertised as a story told from inside the head of a child rapist. That would be irresponsible commercial show more blurbing.
It's an excellent novel, but a love story it is not. The protagonist is written in a way that certainly causes Nabokov controversy, because the character is writing this story to the reader from his prison cell and wants the reader to, yes, view it as a doomed love story. But that's what the character is doing, not what Nabokov is doing. Nabokov is tricky, I mean this is the 13th novel of his that I've read now, I know he's tricky and an extremely erudite writer, but still, this should be apparent.
Humbert tells us from the start of his journey with Lolita that he won her compliance by threatening her with what would become of her as an orphan child if she tries to escape him. He writes of withholding breakfast from her until she "performs her morning duties". He writes of "her sobs in the night - every night, every night - the moment I feigned sleep."
Humbert himself, despite his other self-delusions, seems pretty clear that the "love" in this situation is entirely one-sided, it's just that though he makes performative nods in his telling of the story to feeling guilt on occasion, he's entirely self-centered. He feels love, therefore this is a love story. The reader should obviously know better. It's not a love story, it's a story from the point of view of a child rapist. show less
It's an excellent novel, but a love story it is not. The protagonist is written in a way that certainly causes Nabokov controversy, because the character is writing this story to the reader from his prison cell and wants the reader to, yes, view it as a doomed love story. But that's what the character is doing, not what Nabokov is doing. Nabokov is tricky, I mean this is the 13th novel of his that I've read now, I know he's tricky and an extremely erudite writer, but still, this should be apparent.
Humbert tells us from the start of his journey with Lolita that he won her compliance by threatening her with what would become of her as an orphan child if she tries to escape him. He writes of withholding breakfast from her until she "performs her morning duties". He writes of "her sobs in the night - every night, every night - the moment I feigned sleep."
Humbert himself, despite his other self-delusions, seems pretty clear that the "love" in this situation is entirely one-sided, it's just that though he makes performative nods in his telling of the story to feeling guilt on occasion, he's entirely self-centered. He feels love, therefore this is a love story. The reader should obviously know better. It's not a love story, it's a story from the point of view of a child rapist. show less
THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD (absolutely disgusting and vile ofc, but ykwim). The way the author gets you to sympathize with a pedophile is completely insane. You would NEVER think you could feel bad for a pedophile, yet somehow the author forces you to empathize and really, deeply understand his emotions and why he thinks and feels what he does. Despite the book being quite gross, a bit hard to read, and HIGHLY controversial, you simply CANNOT deny the absolute GENIUS that is Nobakov.
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Statistics
- Works
- 432
- Also by
- 78
- Members
- 96,176
- Popularity
- #95
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1,575
- ISBNs
- 1,951
- Languages
- 42
- Favorited
- 687
