Going to the library to lend a book by Vladimir Nabokov tomorrow.

>>9845151

Other Men's Daughters by Richard Stern.

Or, if you want more Nabokov, the Collected Stories.

>>9845175
I think his stories are really hit or miss. Ten of those stories in that big collection are must-reads. Others are good. A lot of them are bad.

Op, grab Pnin. Or if you want to complete the his pedo trilogy, read Laughter in the Dark. It's pretty good for a translation. After one or two more f his books, read Pale Fire. I think it helps to have a grasp of his style before read it, not that it's a difficult book.

>>9845151
Read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. It's one of his best books (his first in English) short, and for some reason rarely mentioned here.

>>9845451
This is fairly good advice, I'd vote for Laughter in the Dark. Make sure you eventually get to Ada though

Pale Fire, Despair, Invitation to a Beheading and The Gift are top tier Nabokov. Pale Fire is especially good.

>>9845151
A D A
R
D
O
R

>>9845936
It's actually one of his worst books, an under-cooked version of Pale Fire.

>>9846081
Pathetically false.

>>9846103
Exhilarating argument.

>>9846107
Bogus indictment.

>>9846107
The Gift and Pale Fire really are top tier. Despair's interesting, an odd duck. Had you listed Bend Sinister instead of Invitation I might have been inclined to somewhat agree. But RLSK is easily one of his best novels, Invitation one of his thinnest.

>>9846311
Invitation is much more philosophically inclined than most of his other books. It lacks his trademark "shallowness", which is why I like it. I haven't read Bend Sinister, but considering the description reads exactly like Ayn Rand's "Anthem" I don't know if I want to. However, all of this isn't very important. What is important is that everyone has to read Pale Fire, it's a work of genius.

>>9846063
Seconding Despair, it's a goooood book

Ada or Ardor is his masterpiece. I think that book is one of the most impressive achievements in literature, it's crazy that people mostly remember him for Lolita. Cause on top of the absolute mastery of structure, Ada also has its share of child fucking and even incest

I've read all of his novels except Transparent Things.

Top three:

Lolita
Pale Fire
Ada

>>9845151
Pale Fire
a
l
e

F
i
r
e

I liked the eye too

>>9845151
Pale Fire niggahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
sorry my key broke

>>9845151
Portnoy's Complaint

>>9846378
>>9846072
How would you rate this book's difficulty? I remember reading it a while back after reading Lolita for the first time and not knowing what the fuck was going on

>>9848546
It's demanding but not cryptic like Joyce stuff or overbearing like Moby Dick.

There are annotations at the end of the book that you can read when you don't get something, or when he uses French or Russian words, it's pretty well done.

The main thing is that he only mentions in passing that the whole thing takes place in a parallel universe where History and technology went down differently. When you got that it's an extremely pleasurable book to read, the prose is sophisticated but each chapter is rather short, so it balances itself out nicely.

>>9846010
>>9846072
>>9846063
>>9846395
>>9846599
>>9846636

I guess I'll try and get my hands on some copies of Pale Fire and Ada in this turn then. Thanks for all the advice.

>>9849360
What edition do you have? Or are those notes by Nabokov himself?

>>9848546
The first two (maybe 3) chapters are obscenely difficult, but it does get easier. Just get though them. I don't want to spoil anything but the general takeaway from these opening chapters is that they are living in a (close, but) different world, there is no electricity, and that Van and Ada are talking about something they found in the attic.

You really should read this book. It represents Nabokov at the peak of his astheticism and is one of the most heartfelt novels of the 20th century

>>9849664
They're by him, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom

I'm not really familiar with Russian literature, but I have read a lot of Nabokov. Any Russian classics I should read before reading The Gift?

Ada, Speak, Memory, and his lectures imo
I also enjoyed pnin

>>9845151
Lectures
Speak, Mnemosyne
Pnin

read em all at once -- COMFY ALERT CODE RED COMFY WE GOT A 657 HERE HERB YEAP A CODE RED COMFY