Well, I’m definitely on a roll this week with books from my stacks! Another author I’m always looking for an excuse to read is Vladimir Nabokov; and for our last club in April (1936) I managed to find three stories by the great man from that year. 1976 is much later in his career, but I discovered that in that year a collection of his earlier stories was released. The book is called “Details of A Sunset and Other Stories”, and it gathers together thirteen of his short works, all written in Russian between 1924 and 1935. At the time, Nabokov was living in Berlin, Paris and Riga as an expat, and the stories were published individually in various emigre publications. Later, the stories were translated into English by the author and his son, Dmitri, and published in this collection in 1976. Although I don’t have that volume, I *do* have his Collected Stories so I was able to read the individual stories in the order he collected them – and it was, as usual, pure joy to interact with his wonderful prose.
In case you have the same Collected edition as me, the stories from “Details…” are these:
“Details of a Sunset”
“A Bad Day”
“Orache”
“The Return of Chorb”
“The Passenger”
“A Letter that Never Reached Russia”
“A Guide to Berlin”
“The Doorbell”
“The Thunderstorm”
“The Reunion”
“A Slice of Life”
“Christmas”
“A Busy Man”
I’ve commented before on Nabokov’s prose, and indeed he’s considered one of the last century’s major literary stylists; and I find that the writing on display in his short stories often takes the breath away. The ones featured in this volume are no exception, and the settings range from the emigre cities to his homeland of Russia, with several taking the reader back in time or exploring the fates and emotions of those in exile. There are glimpses of emigre life, with all its hardships, and nostalgic looks back to life in Russia pre-revolution, for example in “A Bad Day”, where the protagonist struggles to fit in with other young people at a birthday party. “The Doorbell” tells of the reuniting of a mother and son in Berlin which leads to disillusion for both; similarly, “The Reunion” finds two brothers meeting after a huge gap and finding themselves on different sides of the political divide and with nothing in common.
It is night. At night one perceives with a special intensity the immobility of objects – the lamp, the furniture, the framed photographs on one’s desk. Now and then the water gulps and gurgles in its hidden pipes as if sobs were rising to the throat of the house. At night I go out for a stroll. Reflections of streetlamps trickle across the damp Berlin asphalt whose surface resembles a film of black grease with puddles nesting in its wrinkles. Here and there a garnet-red light glows over a fire-alarm box. A glass column, full of liquid yellow light, stands at the streetcar stop…
Other stories veer off into different territory, with Nabokov exploring multiple layers and meanings. The title story is a tour-de-force where a young man, Mark Standfuss, is abandoned by his fiance and meets his fate without even knowing what has happened to him, all filled with allusions to colours, giving it an almost painterly feel. “A Slice of Life” and “The Return of Chorb” both concern lost loves and the different ways people deal with that loss. “Christmas” deals with a different kind of loss, that of a son, with the father attempting to come to terms with his grief on Christmas eve. And “The Busy Man” is a kind of fable which almost made me think of the work of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, where the protagonist, Grafitski, has convinced himself that a prediction of his death is true and then wastes his life making preparations to try to avoid the prediction coming to pass.
The stories in themselves are inventive, clever and unforgettable, but it’s Nabokov’s style which often lifts them above the norm. His prose is precise, beautifully constructed and conjures his settings and characters quite brilliantly. Witty, clever and atmospheric, these are tales which linger in the mind, leaving you wondering about the protagonists, their lives before and after the events related, and their eventual fates. Many of the stories were from the start of Nabokov’s writing career and demonstrate just how much he’d defined his style at that early time. He really was a marvellous writer, and I’m so glad the #1976Club gave me the chance to read more of his short stories! 😀The horse-drawn tram has vanished, and so will the trolley, and some eccentric Berlin writer in the twenties of the twenty-first century , wishing to portray our time, will go to a museum of technological history and locate a hundred-year-old streetcar, yellow, uncouth, with old-fashioned curved seats, and in a museum of old costumes dig up a black, shiny-buttoned conductor’s uniform.
Tredynas Days
Oct 15, 2021 @ 08:08:55
I have that Collected edition and read it long ago. Must reread some time.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 15, 2021 @ 10:17:41
It’s a chunky volume, which can be a bit daunting, so reading it like this is certainly a good way for me to do it. And he’s such a great author.
madamebibilophile
Oct 15, 2021 @ 10:33:08
I’ve never read his short stories but I can imagine his style suits that form perfectly. Impressive that he’d established how he wanted to write so early in his career! He’s an author I keep meaning to read more.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 15, 2021 @ 11:04:49
It does, and the short stories can be less overwhelming linguistically than his longer works sometimes are. I’d definitely recommend exploring them!
Margot Kinberg
Oct 15, 2021 @ 12:15:14
I must read some of Nabokov’s short stories! I always think authors’ styles are different when they write short stories to when they write novels. It seems I’ve been missing out on this side of his writing!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 15, 2021 @ 13:14:01
Nabokov’s style is wonderful but can be very rich if you have a whole novel of it. In a short story it works wonderfully I find, and some of them are just haunting.
buriedinprint
Oct 15, 2021 @ 14:44:49
It must be such fun to comb your shelves, and your enviable collection of both short and long works, to find unexpected contributions to a single year’s literary offerings. I enjoy “discovering” your “discoveries”!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 15, 2021 @ 15:17:46
You know, that’s half the joy of doing these reading clubs. It’s wonderful to go through the stacks, seeing what I’ve got that would fit in with the year and discovering books I’ve forgotten I own! 😀
heavenali
Oct 15, 2021 @ 16:46:22
Those stories depicting emigre life and pre revolutionary Russia appeals, there is a kind of romanticism about that period.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 15, 2021 @ 18:55:34
Yes, they’re really evocative and quite beautiful – he obviously does miss that part of his life!
JacquiWine
Oct 15, 2021 @ 18:57:43
How lovely that you were able to revisit another of your favourite writers as part of the Club! These stories sound incredibly accomplished, especially given that many of them were written when Nabokov was just starting out. Some interesting themes here – loss, disconnection, not fitting in – you’ve certainly conveyed them very well.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 15, 2021 @ 20:27:08
He *has* become one of my all time favourites, so it’s always lovely to get a nudge to visit him. And these are all stories of exile in a way, written when he was first an emigre, so really, really evocative – love them!
WordsAndPeace
Oct 15, 2021 @ 21:33:42
Nice! I’m not at all familiar with his short stories, I will have a closer look
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 16, 2021 @ 11:02:51
I definitely recommend them – his writing is stunning!
Julé Cunningham
Oct 15, 2021 @ 23:43:13
Your method of pulling out stories that were published in a particular year is such a good idea! Nabokov’s short stories are a pleasure to read and I especially like his earlier writing, whether stories or novels, about Russia and émigré life.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 16, 2021 @ 10:58:49
It’s a nice way to get to grips with a big anthology or collection. And yes – his early writings are wonderful!
Simon T
Oct 16, 2021 @ 11:14:14
So glad something so very you could fit the club year 😀
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 16, 2021 @ 11:42:19
I was pleased, I must admit – I love an excuse to pick up a Nabokov book!
Jane
Oct 16, 2021 @ 15:26:45
Now that I’ve discovered short stories I must give these a go, I’ve always been put off reading him because of the subject of Lolita but maybe I should read that too?
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 16, 2021 @ 15:42:37
Oh, definitely give these a try, and also his longer works. Lolita is tricky – I haven’t read it for decades and so am not sure how I would find it now – but there are plenty of others to start with. I’m very fond of Pnin for example – a wonderful book!
1976 Club: Review Round-Up – Stuck in a Book
Oct 16, 2021 @ 16:06:39
literarygitane
Oct 18, 2021 @ 16:28:40
Beautiful review! I have dipped into his short stories from time to time. They are exquisitely written.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 18, 2021 @ 17:41:16
Thank you. And you’re right – his prose is just lucious!
Liz Dexter
Oct 18, 2021 @ 20:47:02
How wonderful, and you DID do well!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 19, 2021 @ 14:15:40
Thank you! 😀
cammanley1
Oct 24, 2021 @ 23:54:57
Very interesting – I haven’t read any Nabokov short stories but must now!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 25, 2021 @ 14:55:04
They’re wonderful – highly recommend them!
Looking back on highlights of 2021’s reading… | Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
Dec 31, 2021 @ 07:01:53