Lectures on Literature (Harvest Book) by Vladimir Nabokov (PDF)

Description

The acclaimed author of Lolita offers unique insight into works by James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, and others—with an introduction by John Updike. In the 1940s, when Vladimir Nabokov first embarked on his academic career in the United States, he brought with him hundreds of original lectures on the authors he most admired. For two decades those lectures served as the basis for Nabokov’s teaching, first at Wellesley and then at Cornell, as he introduced undergraduates to the delights of great fiction. This volume collects Nabokov’s famous lectures on Western European literature, with analysis and commentary on Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, Gustav Flaubert’s Madam Bovary, Marcel Proust’s The Walk by Swann’s Place, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and other works. This volume also includes photographic reproductions of Nabokov’s original notes, revealing his own edits, underlined passages, and more. Edited and with a Foreword by Fredson BowersIntroduction by John Updike

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The above is quoted directly from this book and in particular is a comment made in reference by Nabokov on Flaubert’s Madam Bovary.This expresses a thought I have had for decades, but lack Nabokov’s brilliance eloquence.The scattered gems that sparkle throughout this book are what kept me reading.And now I know that the preceding is a hackneyed image, and why it is a …What might you be looking for that would bring you to this collection of lectures?Like me, you want to view literature from inside the mind of a favorite writer.You are a serious student of the written word and open to advice on how to read.You have been assigned a paper on one or more of the following:Jan Austin’s Mansfield ParkCharles Dickens’s Bleak HouseRobert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeMarcel Proust’s The Walk by Swan’s WayFranz Kafka’s The MetamorphosisJames Joyce’s UlyssesIn other words this is not a book that will appeal to many readers. Speaking as a fan of Nabokov, this fan status may not be sufficient motive to finish the lectures.Absent a plot summery, these are lectures given by VN as a professor of European Literature at Cornell University in 1948. The above selections represent not so much VN`s personal favorites, but examples he chose to facilitate lecture points. The lectures tend to contain highly detailed recountings of each book. Within each discussion is an emphasis on the details, the geography, specific events and images chosen by each writer. His thesis seems to be that writer’s use these details to specify the created universe that is their particular universe.Nabokov believes that the writer is a creator. Readers who insist that the writer is recounting experience and retelling reality are missing the point of the creative process. That is; within a story reality is no more or less than what the writer needs it to be. Therefore details matter. Further more a real reader has a duty to reread works of art or else risk missing these details. Not only read for detail, but “fondle” them.Against this concept, at once romantic and mechanistic Nabokov adds in another eloquent observation. A real reader:”In order to bask in that magic a wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine.” (Thank you [web reference removed]For also noting this quote)It is the tingle between the shoulders that marks a good read, and a good reader.For all of this I have to agree with many of the other reviewers here at Amazon. There is something overly sanitized and dispassionate about Nabokov’s method of literary analysis. Great themes and cosmic struggles fall away while we create maps and clock synchronicities. VN may not care about `isms’ and ‘ists’; but are we better readers if we see the art as so many themes and specifics?The almost Victorian squeamishness Nabokov demonstrates on matter of sex and body functions -he is hampered in his ability to fully discuss or appreciate Ulysses may be appreciated by those who automatically dismiss books with such references. Yet this same VN is the author of the famous novel, Lolita. This is a book about a pedophile. Granted, an oversimplification, but the irony exists.I am glad I finished this book. I am not sure how long it will be before I attempt more literary analyses by Vladimir Nabokov.

⭐Nabokov writes about literature the way some write about wine: savoring nuances and discussing it with delight. A writer of elegant books and a scientist devoted to meticulous classification of detail, he could match Robert Parker’s ability to rate 10,000 wines a year with his capacity of analyzing literary works. His illuminating writing is itself full of light and spark and makes his “Lectures on Literature” an esthetic experience.In Nabokov’s world, art fully defines a literary work. Here writer is an “enchanter” and a story teller, rather than historian, philosopher or instructor in any practical matter. His lectures are devoted to detecting the elements of style and structure in some of the most remarkable novels of European Literature.One of these elements is symphony. Nabokov once confessed that he never found much pleasure in music. If we imagine for a second that he did, he probably would have preferred symphonies to chamber music and big band to jazz trio. He delighted in complex structures, where multiple parts fit neatly together: symphony of people in Flaubert’s agriculture scene in “Madame Bovary”, where “all the characters of … book intermingled in action and in dialogue”, symphony of simultaneous events in “Ulysses”, symphony of senses in Proust’s pairing of the visual and musical effects of moon light in “The Walk by Swann’s Place”, which he considered more complete and elegant than moon light’s description in Gogol’s “Dead Souls” where only visual perception is called to work.Many other elements of personal style are noted: Dickensian imagery and word play, Proust’s evolving sentences where A leads to B leads to C, the theme of layers in “Madame Bovary”, variation of style in “Ulysses”.Nabokov’s method of detecting these elements is to pay special attention to detail. The natural scientist in him believes that any general conclusion would develop naturally after the facts have been collected and taken in. Nabokov expected his students to draw street maps and family trees, visualize hairdos and notice the exact way one catches a coin tossed in the air.Having answered the how of reading literature, Nabokov considers the why. The answer he offers is to acquire a taste for it. He believes that seeing the novel through its author’s eyes, rising to the level of “the joys and difficulties of creation” is one of the most intense pleasures, and shares this pleasure with his students.

⭐This is about the physical aspects of the book. The paperback I purchased is very high quality, good paper, sharp print. BUT this book was designed for a larger format. Subtext, notes, etc. at the bottom of the sheets is microscopic in size, almost impossible to read. Get the larger hardcopy. For the rest, good reading.

⭐This is a writer’s book. It is not (really) for students of literature. It has almost nothing in the way of meaning or ‘higher’ criticism. Instead, it’s a working writer’s careful view of the plot and style of landmark novels. That the writer is Nabokov makes the view sharper, critical and a bit more malign. So much the better.This is the view from the workshop where the boards are cut and planed. The smell of sawdust is in the air. If you are involved in the cabinetry that is fiction, you should spend some time here.I’m not so enthusiastic about his judgment of Austen and Dickens, but then again I’m not so enthusiastic about my enthusiasms. There’s a genius at work here and it’s worth lookingLynn Hoffman, author of

⭐just a little bit writing. pretty good!

⭐You shouldn’t buy this book expecting to get amazing insights into every book addressed, or the beautiful, poetic words that Nabokov has gotten us used to. In my opinion, this book has a different charm (and purpose altogether), which is the enjoyable experience of reading great classics with a mastermind, an aesthete of the highest class. This book belongs in the shelves of those of us who would answer the question: “Who would you love to discuss books with?” with only one word: Nabokov.

⭐Super for anyone interested.

⭐Vladimir Nabokov delivered his lectures on literature at Wellesley and Cornell between 1941 and 1958. The tone is chatty and eloquent, pedagogical and playful, the persistent punning and alliteration reminiscent of his fictional works. Nevertheless, these posthumously published essays are fragmentary and cobbled together with much editorial meddling, the rhythm and cadence of the prose nothing compared to the polish of the published Nabokov. They are unapologetically frank and doctrinaire, although Nabokov’s strictly aesthetic approach, stripped of historical context and ideological influence, makes for some blinkered results.It is the first lecture, however, ‘Good Readers and Good Writers’, which is of most interest. In this brief introduction, Nabokov constructs the ideal Nabokovian reader. They must ‘fondle details’, read with the ‘telltale tingle’ in the spine, and be in possession of a quartet of essentials, namely a dictionary, good memory, artistic sense, and imagination. The reader must never identify themselves with the hero/heroine, nor should they measure the work against reality. All art is deception, and the novel’s world adheres to its own autonomous rules, rules to which the reader must submit.Nabokov explodes a bomb beneath these tenets and the debris descends upon the various lectures. Although the narratives are linearly tackled, Nabokov is more daring on the aspects of form (structure + style), and his elucidation of Flaubert’s poetic precision and the unfolding metaphors of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time are gracefully handled. The mammoth essay on Ulysses is an immense achievement, the perfect companion piece to such a complex work, and Nabokov’s painstaking recreation of Bloom’s Dublin (complete with detailed diagrams) is a testament to the necessity of close reading (he even solves the riddle of The Man in the Brown Macintosh).The sole grumble is aimed at the publisher. Nabokov liked to quote large chunks of the novel under discussion, but the publisher (or editor) takes no pains to differentiate the quoted text from Nabokov’s, thus making it hard to follow who’s writing what. It becomes an irritating muddle that could, and should, have been avoided.As far as literary criticism goes, then, Nabokov’s is not overly sophisticated, but he expertly unpicks the tapestries of the novels and exposes their mysterious weaves. Although Nabokov’s prodding pedagogy can become tiresome, his enthusiasm disperses such mounting annoyance, as his infectious words goad the reader into confronting the beautiful and blissful art of the novel.

⭐If you love intelligence and value language, this is as close as one can get to an ideal conversation about literature.

⭐Mi è molto piaciuto il fatto che Nabokov mette nella sua critica una carica di passione che non può non intrigare l’uditorio di studenti universitari e anche di amanti della letteratura in genereUn écrivain français surestimé, dont on commence heureusement à moins parler ces derniers temps, s’est permis, dans un des ses derniers ouvrages, de dire le mal qu’il pensait de Nabokov. On se gardera de contester cette intéressante prise de position. C’est néanmoins l’occasion de s’intéresser de nouveau à l’auteur de Lolita, que peu de gens semblent avoir lu. Le livre-scandale est connu davantage par son titre que par son contenu littéraire. Si les démêlés d’Humbert Humbert et Lo évoquent des images à certains, c’est surtout grâce aux deux films ayant exploité les péripéties du roman. Cependant, la beauté du livre de Nabokov, au-delà du thème de l’obsédé à la recherche de la nymphette parfaite, est d’une nature spécifiquement littéraire.Dans « Lectures on litterature », le professeur Nabokov nous fait goûter, de manière progressive, aux mets les plus exquis. Et c’est mieux que n’importe quel cours, ou traité savant. Ici, vous approchez Austen, Flaubert, Proust, Joyce sous la bienveillante conduite d’un artiste et non d’un universitaire pédant. Vous découvrez l’évolution de l’art littéraire moderne, à travers l’oeil gourmand et parfois cruel d’un écrivain de premier plan. Cela peut irriter, car le bonhomme a ses parti pris, ses têtes de turc, en particulier l’abhorré philistin. Il ne prétend nullement à l’objectivité mais cherche avant tout à transmettre l’amour de l’art, comme cet autre transmetteur de gai savoir qu’est Umberto Eco. Car, au final, le grand écrivain est d’abord pédagogue, conteur, et, par dessus tout, enchanteur. N’en déplaise à Mr Houellebecq.Nabokov’s astute and original analysis of some of the most wellknown and important classics never ceases to amaze me. He often presents motives and structures in the works that I had never thought, but afterwards seem as clear as the light of day.I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in getting a wholly original analysis of these classics! Thoroughly enjoyable and bound to give you a lot of new insights.

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