Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Машенька / Подвиг

Rate this book
В книгу включены два романа классика литературы русского зарубежья Владимира Набокова, написанные в русскоязычный, «сиринский» период его творчества.

«Машенька» (1925–1926, опубл. 1926) – первый и наиболее автобиографичный роман писателя, книга о «странностях воспоминанья», о прихотливом переплетении узоров русского прошлого и берлинского настоящего в жизни эмигранта Льва Ганина, воскрешающего в памяти историю своей первой любви.

«Подвиг» (1930, опубл. 1931–1932) повествует о судьбе Мартына Эдельвейса – молодого русского эмигранта со швейцарскими корнями, чей жизненный путь пролегает едва ли не через всю Европу, отчасти совпадая с эмигрантскими маршрутами автора и заставляя вспомнить старинное значение слова "подвиг" – путешествие, странствие, движение. Мартын упорно ищет себя – в творчестве, в труде, в любви, в спорте, в разнообразных проверках собственной смелости, – а в финале романа вступает на стезю истинного подвига: отвергая возможность легального возвращения в Россию, он тайно, с риском для жизни, переходит русскую границу и исчезает в таинственном сумраке лесной тропы…

352 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

13 people are currently reading
52 people want to read

About the author

Vladimir Nabokov

896 books15k followers
Vladimir Nabokov (Russian: Владимир Набоков) was a writer defined by a life of forced movement and extraordinary linguistic transformation. Born into a wealthy, liberal aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia, he grew up trilingual, speaking Russian, English, and French in a household that nurtured his intellectual curiosities, including a lifelong passion for butterflies. This seemingly idyllic, privileged existence was abruptly shattered by the Bolshevik Revolution, which forced the family into permanent exile in 1919. This early, profound experience of displacement and the loss of a homeland became a central, enduring theme in his subsequent work, fueling his exploration of memory, nostalgia, and the irretrievable past.
The first phase of his literary life began in Europe, primarily in Berlin, where he established himself as a leading voice among the Russian émigré community under the pseudonym "Vladimir Sirin". During this prolific period, he penned nine novels in his native tongue, showcasing a precocious talent for intricate plotting and character study. Works like The Defense explored obsession through the extended metaphor of chess, while Invitation to a Beheading served as a potent, surreal critique of totalitarian absurdity. In 1925, he married Véra Slonim, an intellectual force in her own right, who would become his indispensable partner, editor, translator, and lifelong anchor.
The escalating shadow of Nazism necessitated another, urgent relocation in 1940, this time to the United States. It was here that Nabokov undertook an extraordinary linguistic metamorphosis, making the challenging yet resolute shift from Russian to English as his primary language of expression. He became a U.S. citizen in 1945, solidifying his new life in North America. To support his family, he took on academic positions, first founding the Russian department at Wellesley College, and later serving as a highly regarded professor of Russian and European literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959.
During this academic tenure, he also dedicated significant time to his other great passion: lepidoptery. He worked as an unpaid curator of butterflies at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His scientific work was far from amateurish; he developed novel taxonomic methods and a groundbreaking, highly debated theory on the migration patterns and phylogeny of the Polyommatus blue butterflies, a hypothesis that modern DNA analysis confirmed decades later.
Nabokov achieved widespread international fame and financial independence with the publication of Lolita in 1955, a novel that was initially met with controversy and censorship battles due to its provocative subject matter concerning a middle-aged literature professor and his obsession with a twelve-year-old girl. The novel's critical and commercial success finally allowed him to leave teaching and academia behind. In 1959, he and Véra moved permanently to the quiet luxury of the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland, where he focused solely on writing, translating his earlier Russian works into meticulous English, and studying local butterflies.
His later English novels, such as Pale Fire (1962), a complex, postmodern narrative structured around a 999-line poem and its delusional commentator, cemented his reputation as a master stylist and a technical genius. His literary style is characterized by intricate wordplay, a profound use of allusion, structural complexity, and an insistence on the artist's total, almost tyrannical, control over their created world. Nabokov often expressed disdain for what he termed "topical trash" and the simplistic interpretations of Freudian psychoanalysis, preferring instead to focus on the power of individual consciousness, the mechanics of memory, and the intricate, often deceptive, interplay between art and perceived "reality". His unique body of work, straddling multiple cultures and languages, continues to

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
40 (40%)
4 stars
36 (36%)
3 stars
21 (21%)
2 stars
2 (2%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Olga Krik.
28 reviews
July 19, 2017
Понравилось , время в полёте пролетело быстро
Profile Image for (sic).
7 reviews
January 14, 2025
Magnificent, ending of both novels made me feel empty
Profile Image for Юлия Репина.
35 reviews
November 21, 2018
Россию надо любить. Без нашей эмигрантской любви России – крышка. Там ее никто не любит.
1 review
August 31, 2025
have to read this again. reading once (each work of Nabokov) is not enough.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.