Recommendations for Nabokov readings?

[Ramsey Campbell]

Since this thread has been revived, may I add Laughter in the Dark, which has one of my favourite opening paragraphs of all time? Ada, on the other hand, I tackled several times before I got beyond the first couple of chapters. My old friend John Brunner enthused about the book so much that I determined to give it another try, and took it with me on an eight-hour transatlantic flight. I'm glad I persevered - it has much to offer.

Elsewhere I've owned up to pinching the trick from "The Vayne Sisters" for a tale of my own.

 

[Bleak&Icy]

Elsewhere I've owned up to pinching the trick from "The Vayne Sisters" for a tale of my own.

Only a brave author, Undeed, would pinch a trick from "The Vane Sisters"! As Nabokov himself once put it, with tongue characteristically in cheek: "This particular trick can be tried only once in a thousand years of fiction. Whether it has come off is another question." But it's the words that count.

The opening paragraphs of Laughter in the Dark beg to be read aloud--which is a sign of great fiction.

 

[Ramsey Campbell]

Only a brave author, Undeed, would pinch a trick from "The Vane Sisters"! As Nabokov himself once put it, with tongue characteristically in cheek: "This particular trick can be tried only once in a thousand years of fiction. Whether it has come off is another question."

Damn, I should have done it in a future incarnation...

 

[Ruina]

Nabokov is one of the few Russian writers I really like. My tastes here are quite "simple" and "mainstream" though, with Lolita and Camera Obscura being favourites. I also like Pale Fire, which I strongly recommend to everyone who likes Ligotti.

 

[Molly Grue]

Nabokov is one of the few Russian writers I really like. My tastes here are quite "simple" and "mainstream" though, with Lolita and Camera Obscura being favourites. I also like Pale Fire, which I strongly recommend to everyone who likes Ligotti.

I read Lolita early in the pandemic, mostly because it showed up in my LFL and I live a stone's throw from Cornell (where Nabokov taught), so it seemed obligatory to give it a whirl. A couple week's back, I picked up and read Pale Fire with great enjoyment, based on James Tiptree, Jr. gushing praise about it in a letter to Joanna Russ I was reading. I am now in the middle of Pnin, which I also like so far. I've also read a handful of his short stories, most memorably Signs & Symbols.

So my question is, where next? I'm tempted to go for Speak, Memory. Are any of his other novels worth the time?

 

[Michael]

Penguin put together some lovely hardbacks of Nabakov a few years ago. I don't know if it was intentional or not but I thought the order was perfect. For example "Mary" was the first book in the series. I think it's a wonderful intro to Nabakov. Short book, precursor to larger themes he works on in the future and gives you a sense of what he looks like when he's warming up.