Vladimir Nabokov: Lectures on Literature. Austen, Dickens, Flaubert, Joyce, Kafka, Proust, Stevenson, Etc

by Vladimir; Fredson Bowers (editor); John Updike (introdcution) Nabokov

The celebrated author of "Lolita," among other classics, offers his insights regarding contemporary and preceding works of literature.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might be quite interesting if you are very keen on literary criticism, and especially if interested in either the author of the lectures or his subject.
That said, of the seven lectures, I read the four on books/stories I had read (namely those on Austen's 'Mansfield Park', Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', Stevenson's 'Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde' and Kafka's 'Metamorphosis'. I found them moderately interesting at best. In fact I got so bored in the Kafka lecture that I started skimming it after a while.
By the way, I was similarly disappointed by the distressingly literally titled Nabokov interview collection, 'Strong opinions'. VN seems to delight in being opinionated and rudely dismissive of anyone whose opinion he disagrees with. As a former bolshy teenager, I can understand the impulse. But it doesn't make for fun reading. A bit mystifying and disappointing that a guy rated as a great stylist turns out to be just a bore and a boor when he steps outside his own fiction. But there you go.