Laughter in the Dark

by Vladimir Nabokov

"Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster." Thus begins Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark; this, the author tells us, is the whole story except that he starts from here, with his characteristic dazzling skill and irony, and brilliantly turns a fable into a chilling, original novel of folly and destruction. Amidst a Weimar-era milieu of silent film stars, artists, and aspirants, Nabokov creates a merciless masterpiece as Albinus, an aging critic, falls prey to his own desires, to his teenage mistress, and to Axel Rex, the scheming rival for her affections who finds his greatest joy in the downfall of others. Published first in Russian as Kamera Obskura in 1932, this book appeared in Nabokov's own English translation six years later.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Russia, Russian Literature, Novels, Literature, 20th Century

199 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

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

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laughter in the Dark is a love story or rather it is a caricature of a love story. And telling the tale Vladimir Nabokov becomes grotesquely melodramatic.
The world is the stage and life is a play:

The stage manager of this performance was neither God nor the devil. The former was far too gray, and venerable, and old-fashioned; and the latter, surfeited with other people’s sins, was a bore to himself and to others, as dull as rain… in fact, rain at dawn in the prison-court, where some poor imbecile, yawning nervously, is being quietly put to death for the murder of his grandmother.

The hero is an infatuated idealist living with his head in the romantic clouds so he is doomed right from the start…

Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.

An object of the unbound adoration is a small-minded underage girl that is capable of nothing but to take…

“A lovely creature, unquestionably but there is something snakelike about her.”

And the happy rival is a cynical and unprincipled rascal…

His culture was patchy, but his mind shrewd and penetrating, and his itch to make fools of his fellow men amounted almost to genius. Perhaps the only real thing about him was his innate conviction that everything that had ever been created in the domain of art, science or sentiment, was only a more or less clever trick.

Laughter in the Dark is a parable of idealistic blindness: some are born to deceive others and some are born to be deceived.

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original published under the name 'Camera Obscura', Vladimir Nabokov was so displeased with the quality of it's first English translation in 1936 he personally took to changing it under the now title 'Laughter in the Dark' and this becomes the first foreign novel I have read that was actually translated by the writer himself.

And If there's one thing that strikes me about Nabokov, it's the impression I get that his mind was never too far away from lust and desire, whether that be writing, having a stiff drink or going to fetch the morning paper. Dealing with similar themes although to a different developed effect with that of his 1955 masterpiece 'Lolita', Laughter in the Dark takes place mainly in Berlin and centres on seemingly happily married art critic Albinus, who after visiting a cinema catches sight of young aspiring actress Margot, who works there. He can't shake the thought of her from his mind and returns, eventually seducing her, and takes her as his mistress. After Elisabeth the wife of Albinus discovers his entanglement with Margot she takes their daughter Irma and leaves, opening the door for the couple to evolve. However to help with her dreams of hitting the big screen, Margot hatches a plan with former lover Axel Rex to deceive him while on a trip to France, with terrible consequences.

This is ultimately a tragically comic love story, although I found it far more tragic than funny, his daughter Irma would fall seriously ill and Albinus has lingering thoughts of trying to rekindle his dying marriage, but Margot turns into a nympho to fulfil his sexual appetite and wants him to get a divorce. The middle third of the novel takes on quite a sad feel and left a lump in my throat. The actions of Albinus at times seem farcical, while Margot takes to playing a sort of femme fatale with her manipulating mannerisms.
Nabokov's narrative has the most precise pacing, and is decisive, witty but with a slightly morbid
sensibility. Would have loved to see the characters and story developed even further as they were just so readable. I simply craved for more!. Anyway, a fabulous novel, one of his very best.

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

laughter in the dark walked so gone girl could run.

this is beautifully written and cruel and funny. recommended for all evil girls in my life (my favorite subcategory of people).

oh life!!

bottom line: i hate reviewing classics. this is good. the end.

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currently-reading updates

just doing some light beach reading

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tbr review

yes i am adding this to my to-read list solely because it's being adapted into a film starring the love of my life anya taylor-joy. and that's okay.

[Violet wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably Nabokov's most accessible novel and in some ways a precursor to the later Lolita. The opening paragraph gives us a precis of the entire story: "Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster."

It was interesting to discover he was unhappy with the English translation and so, five years later in 1938, decided to translate it himself. It's come to light that he rewrote much of it in the process and that the original version was actually a rather shoddy affair. Lucky for him, more of a stickler for perfection than virtually any other writer, all but a handful of already sold copies were destroyed when a German bomb destroyed the warehouse during the Blitz. Thus, this was his first novel written in English.

Albinus is an aesthete, overly susceptible to experiences of the eye. He first sees Margot in a cinema. She is, both literally and symbolically, an usherette. All the novel's symbolism is pretty straightforward but deftly handled. The character of Margot allows Nabokov to explore one of his overriding fascinations, human cruelty. The exploitation of helplessness for sadistic kicks. You sense Hollywood stole one of the book's plot ideas and used it as the pivot of more than one famous dark thriller. All in all, a thoroughly satisfying and compelling novel, much simpler in its blueprint than is usual with Nabokov. 4.5 stars.

[Luís · Rating 5 out of 5]

The style is superb, and the story is captivating. A man leaves his home and becomes infatuated with a very young, poor girl who leads him to luxury and money. She will be his and will play with him. But, unfortunately, he, too, in love, will be blind to all the perversions and shenanigans.
I prefer this one to Lolita for the pacing and plot.
For my part, Lolita is too repetitive in its sentences, enthusiasm, and adoration for its nymphet.

[°°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ʜᴇʟᴇɴ Ροζουλί Εωσφόρος ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° ★·.·´¯`·.·★ Ⓥⓔⓡⓝⓤⓢ Ⓟⓞⓡⓣⓘⓣⓞⓡ Ⓐⓡⓒⓐⓝⓤⓢ Ταμετούρο Αμ · Rating 5 out of 5]

«Μια φορά και ένα καιρό ζούσε στο Βερολίνο ο Αλμπίνους… Μια ωραία μέρα εγκατέλειψε τη γυναίκα του για χάρη νεαρής ερωμένης. Ήταν ερωτευμένος, όχι όμως και εκείνη. Η ζωή του τελείωσε σε πλήρη καταστροφή».
Και συνεχίζει:

«Αυτή είναι όλη η ιστορία διατυπωμένη σε γενικές γραμμές, που θα μας αρκούσαν αν δεν υπήρχε το όφελος και η απόλαυση της διήγησης. Και, παρότι μια ταφόπετρα, τυλιγμένη στα βρύα, έχει άφθονο χώρο για να περιλάβει τη συντμημένη εκδοχή μιας ανθρώπινης ζωής, η έκθεση της λεπτομέρειας είναι πάντα ευπρόσδεκτη».


Με αυτή την αφηγηματική τεχνική της προοικονομίας αρχίζει ο συγγραφέας στις πρώτες σειρές του βιβλίου να μας προετοιμάζει ψυχολογικά για όσα θα συμβούν αποκαλύπτοντας παράλληλα όλη τη ροή των μελλοντικών γεγονότων.

Προσωπικά αυτή ακριβώς η επιτομή της αφηγηματικής τεχνικής εξ αρχής με εντυπωσίασε και συνέχισα την ανάγνωση σίγουρη πάντα πως ο συγγραφέας θα με ανταμείψει με κάθε του σκέψη αποτυπωμένη στο χαρτί.

Έτσι κι έγινε. Το όφελος και η απόλαυση της διήγησης του Ναμπόκοφ θεωρούνται εξασφαλισμένα και σίγουρα.

Πόσο μοναδικά ταλαντούχος λογοτέχνης πρέπει να είσαι για να αρχίζεις με αυτόν τον τρόπο την εξιστόρηση μιας κατά τα άλλα κοινότοπης ιστορίας μετατρέποντας τη, με εργαλεία τις λέξεις, σε ένα έργο αφηγηματικής τέχνης.

Ένα υπέροχο ανάγνωσμα γεμάτο ενσυναίσθηση, πάθος, έρωτα, λάθη, δράματα, τραγωδίες, ηθικούς εξευτελισμούς, υλική υποτέλεια,υποκρισία, απάτη,προδοσία, και ανελέητη εκμετάλλευση σε κάθε αδυναμία που προκαλείται απο ορμέμφυτα, ακόρεστα ένστικτα ηδονής.

Ο Ναμπόκοφ (κατά τη γνώμη μου) στήριξε το μεγαλείο της λογοτεχνικής του δεινότητας στο χάρισμα της συναισθησίας.
Αυτή η κατάσταση ανάμειξης των αισθήσεων ήταν σίγουρα το ευλογημένο εργαλείο της δημιουργικότητας του.
Και φυσικά το «γέλιο στο σκοτάδι» αποτελεί ξεκάθαρα το προοίμιο του αριστουργήματος που έρχεται κατόπιν με το όνομα «Λολίτα».

Σε γενικές γραμμές η ιστορία ειπώθηκε στις δυο πρώτες παραγράφους.

Απο και και μετά ξεκινά το μεγαλείου του συγγραφέα στυλίστα. Χτίζει και παίζει με τους ήρωες του -κυρίως τα τραγικά πρόσωπα που πρωταγωνιστούν- κάνοντας τους υποχείρια των φόβων τους και των πόθων τους.

Έρμαια του εαυτού τους να παραπαίουν ανάμεσα σε αγωνία, απορία και ψυχολογικό λαβύρινθο για τις αποφάσεις και τις κινήσεις που πρέπει να παρθούν ώστε να αντιμετωπίσουν τα θέλω τους, τη θέση τους στην οικογένεια και την κοινωνία, μα κυρίως την ταυτότητα τους και την εξέλιξη τους σε καθημερινή βάση.

Πρέπει να διαλέξουν, να πορευθούν ανάλογα, έτσι ώστε η αίσθηση της ευτυχίας που θα νιώσουν -μολυσμένοι απο το μικρόβιο του πειρασμού- όσο αυτοκαταστροφική και αν είναι, να μπορέσει να ισορροπήσει τους κινδύνους που παρουσιάζονται αναφορικά με τη δυστυχία που θα προκληθεί σε οικεία και αγαπημένα πρόσωπα.

Και φυσικά μέσα στην ανασφάλεια, τον πανικό και την απόλυτα εύθραυστη ευτυχία που πηγάζει απο τον πειρασμό της ηδονής, έρχεται η καταστροφική λύση, που θα προσφέρει πρωτόγνωρες ερωτικές απολαύσεις και θα παρασύρει στην ουτοπία και τη ματαιότητα.

Ο ήρωας μας κυρίως, ο καημένος, αφελής και άπληστος Αλμπίνους κυριεύεται σε βαθμό αρρώστειας απο το πάθος του για την 16χρονη Μαργκό.

Η μικρή τον ξεγελά, καθώς το πεπρωμένο της είναι η αδίστακτη εξαπάτηση και η άνετη ζωή με πλούτο και ανέσεις. Δεν του αρνείται τον άξεστο έρωτα της χωρίς αναστολές, κάνοντας τόν μεσήλικα, εύπορο, αστό, ένα δραματικό υποχείριο.
Ένα υποκείμενο, έρμαιο των ηδονικών απολαύσεων που του προσφέρει σπρώχνοντας τον σε μια κατρακύλα δραματικής αναξιοπρέπειας.

Τον οδηγεί σε πράξεις που δεν θα έκανε ποτέ σε συνθήκες ομαλής συνειδητότητας.
Χάνει τα πάντα και μπλεγμένος στην ανυπαρξία πλέον, θεωρεί πως θα εκδικηθεί και θα σωθεί απο τα φαντάσματα του εαυτού του και τους εφιάλτες του μυαλού του με την τελευταία πράξη λύτρωσης.


Το 5ο ***** αστέρι αφιερώνεται αποκλειστικά και μόνο στη μεγαλειώδη γραφή.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Καλή ανάγνωσ��.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.

[Fionnuala]

And so, there I was, sitting in a cinema.
The film I was about to see was called ‘Obsession’.
As I sat in the dark, I laughed to myself because if there’s one theme I’ve come across a lot in literature, what with Proust and Goethe and Mann, it’s obsession.
No surprise then that Albinus, the lead character in the movie, turns out to resemble Proust’s obsessive hero Charles Swann so closely that it’s hard to tell the difference between them. Like Swann, Albinus is a man of private wealth and refined tastes who collects art. And not only does he collect the work of famous sixteenth and seventeenth century artists, he also writes articles about them in academic journals exactly as Swann does. However, Albinus dabbles a little in fakes as well; he's interested in paintings that look so much like the originals that no one can tell the difference.
Interesting.
And so, because of the resemblance to Swann, I was soon on the lookout for the woman Swann obsessed about: Odette de Crécy. Sure enough, a few scenes in, Odette appears - she's an usherette in a cinema coincidentally.
Well, not the real Odette but a young woman quite like her called Margot Peters.
Margot is poor but ambitious, very ambitious indeed, and there’s something about her pale and fragile beauty that drives Albinus to distraction - he’s as deluded as poor Swann imagining Odette as a Botticelli virgin.

Within a few short scenes, Albinus has set Margot up as his mistress and given her lots of money to furnish her new apartment - which she does in a similar style to the one Odette chose for the apartment Swann gave her. And of course Margot’s choice in decor is not what Albinus would have chosen himself; like Charles Swann, he doesn’t really go in for chintz or chinoiserie.

And so Margot lies around all day in a chintzy kimono reading cinema magazines. She becomes very bored and soon finds more entertaining things to occupy her days such as shopping and being seen in smart places. Albinus is of course horribly jealous; he wants to know every detail of where she goes and who she speaks to. Swan and Odette all over again. The scenario is so like Proust's it's hard to tell the difference.

The other three-quarters of the movie examine just how far from his original life a man’s obsession can take him. There is a certain humour, but it’s all black.

……………………………………………………

And so, what you've read so far is a bit of a fake because I didn’t really see a movie.
No, most of what I've described can be found in the first section of this book with the very fitting title of Laughter in the Dark. It was written in 1932, and is the earliest Nabokov I’ve read and the only one, apart from Lolita, that doesn’t have some connection with Russia (although there is a lost cigarette case and there’s been such a cigarette case in the background of all Nabokov's Russian novels). This story is set in Berlin, like The Gift, but Albinus and Margot and all the other characters are German rather than Russian.

The book reads like a screen play; there’s very little descriptive writing but lots of dialogue, and we always know where the characters are in each scene so that reading is so like sitting in a cinema that it's difficult to tell the difference. There are even film scenes described in detail and some discussions about the difficulties of moving from the silent screen to talkies, all of which made me think that Nabokov must have had some interest in writing screen plays at this point in his career.

When I checked up on this, I found that this book had been made into a joint French-British movie in 1969 with the setting changed from 1930s Berlin to 1960s London.
I almost expected to find that the title in French would be L'Obsession but it was La Chambre Obscure (the dark room).
An excellent title as it turned out.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, Laughter in the Dark was by far the worst novel I’ve read by Nabokov. And that’s to say that it was a solidly good, funny, and engaging book. Like many of his novels, the plot is your basic old- man- obsessed- with- inappropriately- aged- girl- who- also- happens- to- be- evil- and- this- as- you- might- guess- ends- in- tragedy and the tone is the only one you can have with such a plot – it’s a very dark comedy. I hope.

I found that this book fell into the same category as his other early work that I’ve read, Depair, in that it seems to be an illustration of the timeless author learning the ropes and beginning to understand his interests and abilities. Although it’s no masterpiece, Laughter in the Dark is still a pleasure to read and a great window into how Nabokov developed both his life-long themes and writing tools.

To those Nabokov snobs who might say, “Laughter in the Dark is nothing more than a shoddy rendition of Lolita,” I say to you, how many novels did you write in your mother tongue when you were thirty and then translated into a foreign language two years later? I mean, of course it’s not as good as Lolita, which is one of the best books of our time and written in the prime of Nabokov’s genius. But it can still be good.

In fact, more than anything, I’d recommend this book to anyone about to board an airplane. The whole time I was reading it, I was almost wishing I had saved it for my next trip.

1. It is printed in a big, easy-to-read font that makes it hard to lose your place even when you get distracted by airplane stuff.
2. It only takes about 3 or 4 hours to read.
3. It has a very fast-moving and weird, deviant plot – so deviant, in fact, that you could probably forget you are flying through the air at dangerous speeds.
4.It makes those around notice that you are interested in early-era Nabokov, which makes you really smart and interesting. They don’t have to know that it’s a pretty easy, fun read filled with weird sex.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Death is often the point of life's joke"
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark



“Death," he had said on another occasion, "seems to be merely a bad habit, which nature is at present powerless to overcome.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark

An early Nabokov with many funky allusions to Tolstoy, anticipations and presages of Lolita, and obviously -- plenty of Nabokovian black humor from beginning to end. As a independent work, I don't think it belongs in the top tier of Nabokov's lush ouvre, but it seems to me to be a piece where Nabokov establishes his literary sea legs. The genealogy of most of his great later work seem to all thread back to 'Laughter in the Dark'/aka 'Kamera obskura'.

In this novel, Nabokov is playing with themes of vision, blindness, truth, deception, art and morality. You see many of Nabokov's later motifs surrounding vision floating (like mouches volantes) through this early work: mirrors, window pains, mimicry, scintillations, semblances, glasses, movies, etc. It wouldn't be Nabokov if he played any of these themes straight. He bends the narrative and plays with Tolstoy's belief that it is "the essential nature of truth to be hidden from, then revealed to, the eyes." Nabokov gives you the goods and gives them to you good and hard right between the eyes.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The flawed human. The insecure being who seeks validation. The manipulated partner. The depressed one who seeks happiness in another life, in order to avoid responsibility and routine. The neglectful father. Still, somewhere in the dimly lit pages of this book, there is a woman who has dedicated her life to him, one who sees in him the person he is unable to see, one who has helped him morph into the man he has become, one who understands he is living a delusion.

Nabokov dedicated this novel to his wife Vera. Imagine that.

Laughter occurs in the dark, both literally and figuratively, as Albinus goes on a downward spiral after abandoning his wife and child for a lover who is a child herself. Does he love his wife, he does, he thinks, and yet there are things he dislikes, just as there are things he seeks in another. Elisabeth, his wife, is barely seen in this novel; she exists in glimpses, the shell of a woman who is a bit distracted but loyal. The narrative hints at a marriage that also contains a layer of friendship and respect:

They had some very delightful trips abroad, and many beautifully soft evenings at home where he sat with her on the balcony high above the blue streets with the wires and chimneys drawn in Indian ink across the sunset, and reflected that he was really happy beyond his deserts.

The woman the reader gets to see clearly, however, is Margot, the lover. Like Albinus, she too suffers from feelings of insecurity that stems from a bad childhood. She is an element of the street, one who has gotten accustomed to using her body to get what she wants. Albinus, on the other hand, is a man of high society. This juxtaposition of class and society is something that makes for quite an interesting read, as Albinus is tricked and cheated in ways that are quite humorous, especially given all he has done to his family. He is laughed at in the streets, in his own home; he is mocked by his lover, by someone he considers a friend; he is mocked by all who once knew him.

Everywhere, there is laughter, and it happens in the dark, since Albinus is the last one to see it, until suddenly,

he had the obscure sensation of everything being suddenly turned the other way round, so that he had to read it all backward if he wanted to understand. It was a sensation devoid of any pain or astonishment. It was simply something dark and looming, and yet smooth and soundless, coming toward him; and there he stood, in a kind of dreamy, helpless stupor, not even trying to avoid that ghostly impact...

What makes someone leave a healthy marriage to live in the dark pits of deception, manipulation, and "lust burning a hole in his life?" What enables an intelligent person to ignore the signs of financial abuse, to live in "helpless stupor?" What is it about physical craving that turns 'smart' into some kind of inconceivable 'dumb?' There are deeper, darker paths into the emotional mindset, something that Nabokov explores through Albinus in paced prose that often avoids the lyricism of the Nabokov novel, and yet it has the allure of the sparsity of the Hemingway novel, one that moves through dialogue. Albinus is a tortured and disoriented soul who lives in the dark, always reaching, always wanting more, always living inwardly, so that those around him cannot imagine his humiliation and inner pain.

[Helga چـو ایـران نباشد تن من مـباد · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love is blind.

Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, an expert art critic called Albinus. He lived happily in a big house with his wife and little daughter. He was rich. He was well respected and loved. He had everything.
But he wanted more. He wanted to have a mistress; someone young and lively.
One day, he found his dream lover and he loved her passionately. He lavished her with gifts and money in return for her care and affection.

Death is often the point of life's joke.

Once upon a time, a dupe called Albinus fell in love with a woman, who didn’t love him in return; who mocked him behind his back; who used him to fulfill her own dreams.

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cyanide comedy. Nabokov scorns "realism," which befuddles many readers who belch that his characters aren't "likeable." How Americans require the likeability factor ! ~ Who's likeable in works by George Etherege or Joe Orton ? C'mon, we're in a world of surrealism and absurdist humor where the tale is meant to be ironic, rueful, mocking.

This stinging and hilarious story of cuckoldry and duplicity -- where the protagonist sees nothing (like most people) -- was first published abroad in 1933 while US readers devoured Lloyd C Douglas, Edna Ferber, A J Cronin, Pearl Buck, Booth Tarkington and James Hilton. It's an edgy exhibit of jealousy and selfish behavior in which Nabokov impales his blinded characters with a deadly smile.

It begins in Berlin with a borrowing fr "The Blue Angel" : an older chap-a married art scholar and a dullard-swoons over a teenage (adorable-slutty) usherette in a movie house. He gives up his family and his heart for her. Then it shifts into randy comedy as she has the scholar supporting her and a beau who suggests he's gay. Thine host is ready to believe anything.

The scholarly Albinus is good-looking, Nabokov reports, though "his mild blue eyes bulged a little when he was thinking hard," and, since he has a slowish mind, this happens often. Before marriage he knew a few dreary women, including one who always talked about her past in great detail and concluded with "C'est la vie." The Cupid serving him, author stresses, had "a weak chin and no imagination."

At the movies, which play a key role herein, he meets teenie Margot, who likes to gnaw on a dry roll after sex. She wants to get into movies and be a Dietrich-star like Dorianna Karenina. He finances a pic. In a devastating scene, at a preview, Margot sees how awful she is onscreen. Sobs, moans, hysterics. "I'm prepared to do anything to make my darling happy," he says.

Enter Axel Rex, a virile scamp up to no good, Margot's exlover...they keep Albinus stuffed w sleeping pills. After a car accident, in which Albinus is blinded, literally, the dangerous games begin. The last pages, which surely inspired Muriel Spark, end with murder. In this case, a happy ending.

It's a gem.

In 60,000 words Nabokov reveals more about the world than other writers who reach 600,000 words. Critics find Albinus and Axel Rex two sides of Nabokov, who collides sexual pathology with self-knowledge -- or should I say self-illumination ?

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blunders, gropings, disappointment; surely the Cupid serving him was left-handed, with a weak chin and no imagination.

Anyone in a 'bah, humbug' mood, tiring of Christmas/seasonal cheer and goodwill to all [wo]men would be well-advised to pick up this book - in terms of cynical comedy with an overlay of black, black humour this out-misanthropes even a famous people-hater like Patricia Highsmith. I'd even go so far as to say this is a book which trades in some of the cruellest scenes I've had the pleasure to read - not the sort of institutionalised inhumanity that we see in, say, Holocaust or slavery literature, but instead the kind of everyday, easy, cheap cruelty that one person can inflict on another, especially when erotic desire shows its face.

But this is more, I'd say, than simply Nabokov indulging his mocking sensibility and casting an eye over the absurdities that erotic love leads us into: this also carries an acute awareness that adultery sits at the heart of so many western cultural love narratives ('indeed, adultery was the core of gossip, romantic poetry, funny stories and famous operas') from Petrarch's poetic passion for Laura to Anna Karenina, which gets a sideways wink via an actress called Dorianna Karenina, who, when asked if she's read Tolstoy, replies: 'Doll's toy?... No, I'm afraid not. Why?'

In the ill-suited love triangle between foolish, pathetic Albinus, on-the-make Margot, and cunning, cruel Axel Rex, power shifts between the players and the ominous presence of a gun, with Chekhovian certainly, makes an appearance only because it has a role to play.

Stylistically, there is little of Nabokov's trademark dazzle and wordplay but, despite opening the book with a summary of the plot, this somehow maintains its tension to the end, and that's principally because we cannot guess what will happen next once Nabokov has thrown away the rule-book of genre conventions and indicated that he's going to go as far as he can.

There's much shifting of roles amongst the characters and also in terms of readerly sympathies: I started off cheering on Margot, a very young woman, just sixteen when we meet her, and eighteen for most of the story, trying to find independence and interest in Weimar Berlin, but towards the end the malice and spite becomes almost cartoonish in its vindictiveness. Which, no doubt, is what Nabokov was aiming for, given that Axel is... a cartoonist. And it's not hard to identify our protagonists within the schematic of caricature advocated by Rex: 'The art of caricature, as Rex understood it, was thus based [...] on the contrast between cruelty on one side and credulity on the other.' For most of the book, Albinus is credulity and Margot cruelty, but the triangle will tip on its head all too easily and those roles, especially Margot's in relation to Axel Rex may well be redrawn beyond the end of the book.

Huge fun but also deeply uncomfortable as we have to face up to our complicity of laughter.
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Such a sly, spiteful, cruel book... but uneasily funny at the same time. Full review to come.

[Agnieszka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster .

That way Nabokov starts Laughter in the dark and in fact these words are enough to describe the plot. Outwardly it is a banal tale of tragicomic romance of older man with young girl. There are loads such stories but this one stands out with acerbity and witticism. Nabokov is brilliantly ironical and pungent and whole story full of sardonic humour.

Laughter in the dark. Indeed. After reading you may only applaud how apt the title is. Though when you're reading how blinded by passion fool changes into the fooled blind laughter gradually sticks in your throat.

[Ivana Books Are Magic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curiously enough, the first works of Nabokov I read were not fiction but rather literary criticism. I quite enjoyed reading his views on writing and literature. Predictably, it was not before long that I wanted to read his novels as well. I picked up this book years ago and figured it could be a good introduction to Nabokov. To be frank, I just didn’t want to start with Lolita. I wanted something less emotionally exhausting to start Nabokov with. I was also afraid that I won’t be able to finish Lolita or that it might put me off Nabokov. So, I opted for Laughter in the Dark. There are some similarities between these two novels. Take the protagonists for instance: once again there is an age difference between lovers. There is a girl and an older man, but at least the girl in question is not a minor. The femme fatale of this book is a femme, not an adolescent girl. Young, but not underage. Not a child, although she seems to be able to play that role to get what she wants.

What is interesting about this novel is that Nabokov literally reveals the plot right away. In the opening lines Nabokov reveals the basic storyline and yet it doesn't make this novel any less interesting. I have to admit that these opening lines attracted me immediately:

“Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster. This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.”

Details make all the difference, don’t they? Despite the fact that the book reveals both the atmosphere and the plot immediately, it kept my interest from start to finish. Both protagonists are hard to love, but easy to sympathize with. Albinus is a naïve intellectual and his young mistress is cruel and basic. Margot is manipulative, but in an instinctive not a cunning way. Nevertheless, reading about them was very interesting. I suppose it is because they are so human. Margot isn’t the smartest cookie, but she knows how to get what she wants. Albinus is (as the opening lines reveal) someone who loves but isn’t loved in returned- hence he plays the fool.
“[...] leaving for a day or two that hopeless sense of loss which makes beauty what it is: a distant lone tree against golden heavens; ripples of light on the inner curve of a bridge; a thing impossible to capture.”

I said that I liked how human the protagonists are. That goes for all the characters in the novel. There are no so embellishments in this book, not when it comes to society and human beings. They’re all stripped naked- in the sense that the writer lets you glance into their souls and dig below the surface. Intellectuals and artists- both are sometimes driven by their instincts. Sometimes everything comes down to biology. Instincts, desires, and human urges. Human beings are not always as sophisticated as we would like to believe. We mix impulses with love, gratitude with genuine connection. We fall victims to our desires- over and over again.


Laughter in the Dark really is a wonderful novel. I would say it is a successful book chiefly because of Nabokov’s masterful writing. Nabokov prose flows with ease, and his writing is both elegant and easy to follow. Like I already mentioned, as far as the plot goes there is nothing new, everything is revealed at start, and yet Nabokov makes "seen a hundred times story" into something rather fascinating. The characters are poor excuses for human beings most of the time, but it not hard to sympathize with them in spite of that or maybe because of that.
Once Albinus leaves his wife for Margot, they live in a somewhat stable relationship. Margot is tempted to cheat but doesn’t want to lose the financial stability she has with Albert. Margot doesn’t want (and probably can’t have children). Albinus does not mind. But how long can their happiness last? At the begging of the novel Albinus is a respected but bored to death man, and in a way Margot saves him from his ‘predictable’ life. However, once Albinus is with Margot he might not be bored, but he doesn’t stop being boring. Margot, an abused child that has grown into a selfish woman is obviously bored in her new relationship. Perhaps predictably, soon another character enters the picture and a triangle is formed. Albinus, a boring intellectual, Margot a young cruel mistress and Rex sadistic artist- quite a love triangle they make. What will happen with the man who loved but wasn’t loved in return?

One question remains to haunt me: did Albinus really love Margot? What do you think?

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laughter in the Dark’s one of, what Martin Amis called, Nabokov’s ‘black farces’. It’s cruel and perverse but often incredibly funny, laced with parody, and plays on the conventions of popular genres of its time. Nabokov takes a familiar, stock, scenario of the older man who leaves his family for a younger, predatory woman and turns it into a wonderful, satirical take on popular culture and Weimar Germany. From the start Nabokov emphasises style and perspective over plot, providing a fairy-tale style opening that outlines the tragic destiny of central character Albinus, a pillar of the German bourgeoisie whose submission to his barely-submerged passions leads to his downfall.

It’s a highly visual piece, Nabokov’s use of colour’s marvellous. This visual quality’s key to Nabokov’s deliberate subversion of the codes and style of then-contemporary cinema: from the vastly popular The Blue Angel whose plot informs aspects of Nabokov’s, through to Louise Brooks’s Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. A common theme in Weimar’s cultural outpourings was that of the ‘new woman’ who comes to a bad end, art, literature and cinema was practically littered with the bodies of mutilated women. And Nabokov toys with the suggestion of a similar fate awaiting Margot, the working-class girl who capture’s Albinus’s affections: violence directed at Margot constantly surfaces in Albinus’s thoughts, pervading the novel. Albinus’s rival, the sadistic Axel Rex also complicates the plot. Yet Nabokov undermines expectations, he’s already made it clear Albinus will be the ultimate victim here.

Nabokov’s parody of cinema dictates the style and structure of numerous passages throughout the novel: the framing of images like Margot lounging on a beach; the portrayal of Albinus’s giddy, adolescent-style infatuation like scenes taken from a romance script. It's evident in his imagery, for example the way he foreshadows Albinus’s fate: the scarlet gleam of a cinema sign on a snowy pavement, the blood-red puddles, all connected to Albinus’s early sightings of Margot in her usherette’s job. Even the cinema’s name the Argus links to a crucial development later in the narrative. Although Nabokov frowned on social critique, and pokes fun here at novelists who adopted this as their calling, this works well as an expose of the decay in German society, particularly Weimar Berlin with its massive economic and social inequality. Albinus is an art critic but he falls for a wannabe actress, his supposedly heightened aesthetic sense more façade than substance. Scenes of a dinner-party for rather tarnished representatives of Berlin bohemia act as a skilful indictment of Berlin's creative industry and celebrity culture. Here Nabokov's technique reminded me of the style and bleak humour of Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies but hugely exaggerated, pushed to the limit. His Berlin’s peopled with superficial, voyeuristic individuals, whose cherished desires are revealed as inauthentic at best. People whose lives may pass for art but are actually players in a lurid, second-rate, melodrama – with the possible exception of Albinus’s abandoned family who are swiftly relegated to relatively minor roles. But, Nabokov's approach also operates as a means of highlighting the artificiality of his own creation.

Laughter in the Dark was one of Nabokov’s least favourite books. In general, it’s considered a marginal work, regarded by some as interesting purely as a rehearsal for concepts only fully realised in Lolita: the possibility of “nymphophilia” in the affair between middle-aged Albinus and youthful Margot - constantly marked out for her schoolgirl appearance; the triangle that forms between Albinus, Margot and Axel as an early version of Humbert, Lolita, and Quilty. But I thought this had enough substance to make it worth reading for itself, without the need for constant comparisons with Nabokov’s later fiction. It's an arrogantly clever, annoyingly snobbish piece, but it's also extremely entertaining.

[Peiman E iran · Rating 4 out of 5]

دوستانِ گرانقدر، این کتاب از 247 صفحه تشکیل شده و «ناباکوف» در این اثر نیز همچون داستانِ "لولیتا"، باز به سراغِ داستانِ عشقِ هوس آلود و کورکورانۀ مردی به دخترِ نوجوان، میرود... «مارگو» دختری نوجوان و زیباست که از خانه فرار کرده و مدتی با نقاشی به نام «رکس» هم خانه شده است و تنها کاری که بلد است، سکس و لخت خوابیدن و مدلِ نقاشی شدن است.. پس از مدتی رکس او را رها کرده و مارگو هم پولش تمام شده و مجبور میشود تا برایِ کار به سالنِ سینما برود... در سویِ دیگر داستان، مردی مشهور و ثروتمند به نام «آلبینوس» همراه با زنِ مهربانش «الیزابت» و دخترِ کوچکش «ایرما» در خانۀ مجللِ خویش، زندگی میگذرانند و برادر زنِ تنومند و دلسوزی به نام «پل» دارد که هر روز به آنها سر میزند... همه چیز بطورِ معمول پیش میرود تا آنکه آلبینوس به سینما رفته و در یک نگاه، دلباختۀ مارگو میشود.. شبها به هر بهانه ای به سینما میرود تا مارگو را ببیند و در نهایت به خیالش مارگو به تورِ او افتاده و نمیداند که این دختر بچۀ هوس باز و کثیف است که او را شکار کرده است... آلبینوس برایِ مارگو خانه ای میگیرد تا آن خانه برایش تبدیل به مکانِ عشق بازی اش شود.. ولی کم کم مارگو، این مارِ خوش خط و خال، آلبینوس را مجبور به جدایی از خانواده میکند.. الیزابت به همراهِ دخترش، خانه را ترک کرده و مارگو واردِ خانۀ بزرگِ آلبینوس میشود... آلبینوس قصدِ سرمایه گذاری در یک فیلمِ انیمیشنی دارد که اینگونه با رکس آشنا میشود و پایِ رکس که نقاش و کارکاتوریست است و پیش از این دوست پسرِ مارگو بوده، به زندگیِ آنها باز میشود... به این ترتیب مارگو و رکس به دور از چشمِ آلبینوسِ ساده لوح، عشق بازی هایشان را ادمه میدهند.. در سویِ دیگر داستان، ایرما، دختر بچۀ زیبا و کوچکی که از پدر دور مانده است، بیمار شده و به دلیلِ ذات الریه جان میدهد.. ولی پس از مدتی، آلبینوس انگار نه انگار که دخترش را از دست داده است، به همراهِ رکس و مارگو، به سفرِ تفریحیِ خارج از کشور میروند...آلبینوس در سفر به صورتِ اتفاقی و به کمکِ یکی از دوستانش، متوجه میشود که مارگو به او خیانت میکند و مخفیانه با رکس است.. ولی مارگو نقش بازی کرده و قسم میخورد که رکس همجنس باز است و به زنها میلی نشان نمیدهد.. آلبینوس احمق این بارهم فریب خورده و باور میکند.. ولی از آنجایی که خشمگین و دلچرکین است، رکس را رها کرده و با ماشین و همراه با مارگو، از هتل بیرون آمده و در راه تصادف میکنند .. در این تصادف، ضربه به سرِ آلبینوس وارد شده و بینایی اش را از دست میدهد.. دکتر به آنها میگوید بهتر است که در جایِ خوش آب و هوا سکونت داشته باشند، شاید حال او بهبود پیدا کرده، تا پس از آن دکتر او را جراحی کند.. بنابراین در سوییس و در خانه ای ییلاقی اقامت میکنند و اینبار نیز رکس مخفیانه به آنجا رفته و آلبینوس بیچاره هم نمیتواند حضور او در خانه را متوجه شود و این دو تا میتوانند این آلبینوسِ کور را مسخره کرده و از نابیناییِ او سوءاستفاده میکنند و آلبینوس نمیتواند ثابت کند که در آن خانه، کسی غیر از خودشان حضور دارد.. در این مدت رکس و مارگو، این مرد و زن فریبکار و بی وجدان، نه تنها عشق و حالشان را میکنند، بلکه شروع به خالی کردنِ حساب بانکی آلبینوس میکنند، تا آنکه................................................. عزیزانم بهتر است خودتان این داستان را خوانده و از سرانجامِ غم انگیزِ آلبینوس آگاه شوید
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امیدوارم از خواندن این داستانِ زیبا، لذت ببرید
«پیروز باشید و ایرانی»

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Era uma vez um homem chamado Albinus que vivia em Berlim, na Alemanha. Era rico, respeitável, feliz; certo dia abandonou a mulher por causa de uma amante jovem; amava; não era amado; e a sua vida acabou em desastre.
Isto é a história toda e podíamos tê-la deixado por aqui se não fosse o proveito e o prazer no contar"

Assim inicia Nabokov este romance. E logo me lembrei de um trecho de uma recente opinião do Nelson Zagalo sobre o porquê de lermos literatura; não será, certamente, apenas pelas histórias que essas estão por "todo o lado" e todas semelhantes. O "proveito" reside na forma como um autor nos conta essas vidas e que as torna únicas e especiais. Nabokov fá-lo muito bem, revelando um poder absoluto sobre as personagens e, mesmo quando rasa o absurdo, não deixamos de acreditar nelas. Em Riso na Escuridão constrói - com grande requinte - um dramalhão de "fazer chorar as pedras da calçada". Eu - que com tal enredo, contado por outra pena, teria chorado nem Madalena - dei por mim, durante toda a leitura, sorrindo perversamente com a forma cruel com que Nabokov tiraniza o seu Albinus...
É isto (e outras coisas que não sei se algum dia saberei...) que procuro na literatura: o desconcerto oferecido pelo inesperado que me faz rir quando deveria chorar; o deslumbrar-me com uma frase que me diz o que já sei, mas de uma forma que eu nunca saberia dizer; o reconhecer-me numa personagem, nos seus ridículos, nas suas perversidades, nas suas fragilidades; e...

Se um dia me decidir a construir uma lista dos "meus 10 autores", creio bem que Vladimir Nabokov vai lá estar...

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laughter in the Dark is the story of a married man’s destructive obsession with an attractive young girl. Not a shocking thematic departure for Nabokov, but the novel nonetheless has its own unique character. In terms of its tone it is light and ironic, and in its treatment of its themes, uncomplicated. Nabokov suggests the tragic ending in the first paragraph, forgoing any dramatic tension, and allowing the reader to just sit back and enjoy the inevitable train wreck. This is a tragic comedy with the character of a moral parable. The lesson is: stick with your wife; and watch out for the pretty ones, they are especially insidious. I wonder to what extent Nabokov was working through his own issues with fidelity and temptation.

[Paradoxe · Rating 4 out of 5]

UPDATE 20.11.17:
Σκεφτόμουν το ΣΚ τις ιδιαιτερότητες του τρίτου μέρους, μετά το ατύχημα. Πιστεύω πως για μια ακόμη φορά ένα αντίγραφο, είναι αντάξιο του αυθεντικού. Υπάρχει μια βαθιά γραμμή συγγένειας, τόσο με το δεύτερο μέρος του Εξαδέλφου Πονς, ειδικά αφού μένει κατάκοιτος και μια άλλη λιγότερο εμφανής και σαφής με το Χωριό Στιεπαντσίκοβο. Τίποτα όμως δεν κάνει λιγότερο γοητευτική την ανάγνωση, αυτού εδώ του βιβλίου, ούτε καν η πρόθεση του συγγραφέα του απ' την αρχή να δώσει το σκελετό.

26.10.17:
Όταν διαβάζω βιβλία σαν αυτό που ο ρεαλισμός θυσιάζει κάθε ωραιολογία ψυχρά κι αποφασιστικά, όσο κι αν εξακολουθώ να αγαπώ το ρεαλισμό, στενοχωριέμαι, απογοητεύομαι, θυελλιάζω τόσο πολύ απ’ την ειλικρίνεια που αμέσως σκέφτομαι να τελειώσει, μακάρι να τελειώσει, για να διαβάσω παραμύθια για όλη τη μαγεία που μου έκλεψαν, και, ας μου δίνουν την επιβεβαίωση. Σε κανέναν δεν αρέσει να τον βρίζουν, να τον φέρνουν αντιμέτωπο με τον εαυτό του, έτσι;

Πόσα κάνουμε για τα πάθη μας, που αν δίναμε ίσες ευκαιρίες σε άλλους ανθρώπους, δε θα κυνηγούσαμε μια ζωή ανέμους. Μα όταν το πάθος δεν έχει τον έλεγχο, ο νους δεν είναι καθόλου απλόχερος, γιατί κάποια πράγματα, ορισμένες υποχωρήσεις τις βλέπει σαν υποκρισίες και όχι σαν ευκαιρίες και προτιμά να μηρυκάζει στο εγωιστικό του βοσκοτόπι.

Ανήκει σε αυτό το είδος συγγραφέα ο Ναμπόκοφ που ανήκε και ο Στεντάλ: λιτός και βαθυστόχαστος, μέσα σε ελάχιστες γραμμές εξαντλεί κοφτερά την ανατομία, τη φυσιολογία, την παθολογία του απωθημένου, την ηθική που επικρατεί στους κύκλους των απέξω ( θυμηθείτε όσοι το ‘χετε διαβάσει τη στάση των φίλων μετά το χωρισμό του Αλμπίνους, ή το πηγαδάκι του θυρωρού τη μέρα της πρεμιέρας ). Γράψιμο φιλικό, μέσα σε λίγες σειρές κλέβει απ’ τους ανθρώπους εκείνες τις λεπτομέρειες που τους χαρακτηρίζουν, περισσότερο απ’ τα πορτρέτα τους. Με όλη του την απλότητα, γράφει πλατιά, σαν να διασχίζεις πεδιάδες, σα να βλέπεις μια ζωή μέσα απ’ τα φανάρια σε δρόμο σκοτεινό που δεν έχεις πολλές ευκαιρίες και μισοκλείνοντας τα βλέφαρα περιμένεις τη στιγμιαία λάμψη για να υφαρπάξεις όσο περισσότερα μπορείς, πριν χαθεί σε μια πορεία ανεξέλεγκτη, αδιάκοπη, έξω από στατιστικές.

<< Αρχίζει, σκέφτηκε ο Αλμπίνους >>. Δεν υπάρχει απλούστερη φράση απ’ αυτό το ‘’αρχίζει’’ κι όμως δείχνει με τον καλύτερο τρόπο μια πολύ χαρακτηριστική φράση που έχει μονολογήσει τουλάχιστον δυο φορές κάθε άντρας στη ζωή του. Την πρώτη, πιάνοντας τον εκκολαπτόμενο κώδικα κατά τύχη και τη δεύτερη επειδή η αρχή κάθε κώδικα είναι ίδια και προαιώνια, αφήνει κάτι σα μυρμήγκιασμα στη σκέψη, σαν αμφιβολία χαρμόσυνη στην καρδιά.

Κεντρικός οικοδεσπότης ο έρωτας των διαφορών, οδηγεί στην κορύφωση της κρυστάλλωσης πριν την απομυθοποίηση ( όπως πολλά χρόνια πριν γράφτηκε στο σπουδαιότερο εγχειρίδιο για τον έρωτα, απ’ το Στεντάλ ). Περιγραφή κρυστάλλινη, όχι όμως σαν εκείνα τα ποτήρια με τις καρικατούρες, όχι έτσι, πραγματικό κρύσταλλο μα ίσιο δίχως καμιά περικοκλάδα. Οι διαφορές, ακόμη η επιλογή ενός ταιριού εκ διαμέτρου αντίθετο απ’ το προηγούμενο, η υποχώρηση μπρος στο πάθος των ενδιαφερόντων μας που ο άλλος δεν αδιαφορεί απλώς, μα και τ’ απαξιώνει, γιατί δεν καταλαβαίνει.

<<Αν μου το ‘λεγε κανείς την παραμονή της πρωτοχρονιάς>> δεν είναι ενδιαφέρον; Συνηθίζουμε να συνδέουμε το χαρούμενο εορταστικό των Χριστουγέννων και την τυπική αλλαγή του έτους, όταν θυμόμαστε πως άλλαξε η ζωή μας, προτιμώντας αυτή την περίοδο που σίγουρα τα πράγματα ήταν αλλιώς γιατί συνήθως οι μεγάλες αλλαγές, έρχονται σε άλλες στιγμές, διάφορες χρονικά, ακόμη ίσως – ίσως και διάφορες πνευματικά.

<< αν και ο χώρος μιας ταφόπετρας είναι αρκετός για να χωρέσει, φραγμένη από αγριόχορτα, την περίληψη μιας ανθρώπινης ζωής, οι λεπτομέρειες πάντα είναι καλοδεχούμενες >> και όντως πάντοτε μας ενδιαφέρουν οι λεπτομέρειες, γιατί είναι αυτές που κάνουν τη μονάδα, μονάδα και όσο πικρές κι αδίστακτες κι αν είναι, διψάμε να τις γευτούμε, σαν χαρωποί και καθόλου ένοχοι ηδονοβλεψίες, ελπίζουμε, πως όλα μπορούν να γίνουν αλλιώς, ή έστω να ταξιδέψουμε με τα παθήματα κάποιου άλλου. Μόνο που ένας καλός συγγραφέας, ένας καλός ρεαλιστής συγγραφέας, πάντοτε θα πει μέσα στις ιστορίες του και πράγματα που ξεφεύγουν της δομής, κάτι ελαφρά παράταιρο, ή διαφορετικό που όμως θα είναι ακριβώς εκείνο που δεν περίμενες να βρεις, εκείνο που έχεις αποφασίσει να αποφεύγεις σα θέμα συζήτησης με τον εαυτό σου.

Δεν υπάρχουν σημεία που αφήνει ο συγγραφέας στο σκοτάδι, απ’ το πώς μπορεί ένα μικρό ανθρωπάκι, μια μετριαδούρα να υψώσει τέτοιο ανάστημα λόγω εκείνου του είδους πάθους που υποκινούμενο απ’ το αχόρταγο απωθημένο κι απ’ τον ‘’εσωτερικό άνθρωπο’’, το ασυνείδητο, όπως το ονομάζει ο Γιουνγκ αποδεικνύει κατά τα λεγόμενα του Σοπενάουερ, πόσο αδιανόητα ισχυρή είναι η θέληση, πάνω ακόμη κι απ’ το νου. Ένα τέτοιο ανθρωπάκι με απίστευτη αποφασιστικότητα, ψυχρά μέσα σε αδιασάλευτη και αδιαπραγμάτευτη απάθεια παρατάει το παιδί του ( με έσκισε ο συγγραφέας όταν το παιδί άνοιξε το παράθυρο ελπίζοντας πως το σφύριγμα του αγνώστου ήταν το σφύριγμα του πατέρα ), τη γυναίκα του και τη στιγμή που στο σπίτι του εγκαθιστά το τσόκαρο και αρκεί μια και μόνη μετατόπιση ενός βάζου ή κάποιου φουλαριού για να ξεχάσει όσα συνέδεαν αυτό το χώρο με την προηγούμενη ζωή του. Όσο κι αν τον χάρηκα, όσο κι αν τον συμπάθησα που μέσα στην απλότητα του στην αρχή – αρχή θεωρούσε απιστία όχι το να παραφυλάξει μια άλλη γυναίκα, μα το να περπατήσει στη βροχή χωρίς ομπρέλα, τόσο μετά τον απέρριψα με τον τρόπο που διέγραψε την Ίρμα.

Όπως έγραψα τίποτα δεν αφήνει ήσυχο, ούτε την τέχνη, ούτε τη συγγραφή, τη διαφθορά, τη μόλυνση των ψεμάτων από συμφέρον, κάπου σ’ ένα ταξίδι στη Γαλλία, χώνει κι εκείνη τη μικρή θεά την αμφιβολία, πηγή πολλών κακών, μα και η αποτύπωση που κάνει στην τύφλωση πνευματική ή πραγματική, είναι τόσο γλαφυρή που σκοτώνει. Κι όμως πέρασαν τόσες σελίδες, αυξήθηκαν υπερβολικά τα δεινά του Αλμπίνους, ωστόσο εγώ δε μπόρεσα να τον ξαναδώ γλυκά, η σκέψη μου παρέμεινε με τη μικρούλα Ίρμα. Η αλήθεια είναι πως μετά από ‘κεινη τη στιγμή που θεωρεί, ή καλύτερα η βούληση πείθει το νου ότι η αγάπη του για τη γυναίκα του είναι άσβεστη, άρα μπορεί να παροπλιστεί για το πάθος, ακολουθεί ένας κατήφορος πολύ τραχύς και απότομος. Λίγο πολύ είναι κάποιες φορές που πέφτεις στα μαλακά για κάποιες αποφάσεις και με κάποιες άλλες σου δίνει και καταλαβαίνεις, δεν υπάρχει σταματημός.

Ίσως να μην φτάνει σε τέτοια δυσθεώρητα βάθη πραγματικά, αλλά ψυχικά μπορεί και να τα ξεπερνάει. Τέλος δεν αφήνεται καμιά λεπτομέρεια ανεξήγητη, ούτε σε επίπεδο ψυχολογικού ρεαλισμού σχετικά με το υπόβαθρο των πρωταγωνιστών, απ’ τον ανύπαρκτο πατέρα της Μαργκότ και τον αδερφό που αναζητά την τιμή του όταν μπορεί να αποτιμηθεί οικονομικά ( αυτό τώρα θυμίζει αδιόρατα Ξενόπουλο, δεν υπονοώ παρά μια εκλεκτική συγγένεια δεδομένων των εποχών που γράφτηκαν και τα δυο έργα ), μέχρι το Ρεξ που ψυχόρμητα έκαιγε ποντίκια πριν ξυπνήσει μέσα του το καλλιτεχνικό απ’ την ανάγκη να δει τη φύση πριν τη ζωγραφίσει ή την εκλογίκευση σε αυτό, μέχρι τις άνοστες σχέσεις του Αλμπίνους. Χαράζει όλους εκείνους τους δρόμους που μετά οι χαρακτήρες απλώς ακολουθούν την πορεία τους, αδιαπραγμάτευτα και χωρίς σταματημό. Ενδιαφέρουσα ακόμη κι η ψυχολογία του χωρισμού για τον παρατημένο, το βλέπουμε στη Λίζα, το βλέπουμε στη Μαργκότ. Και επίσης, πως εν δυνάμει όλοι μπορούν να βρεθούν στη θέση εκείνου που εγκαταλείπει.

Μια τελευταία σκέψη για τις μέρες στο σαλέ είναι αυτή, πως μπορούν δυο άνθρωποι να είναι ή όχι χυδαίοι αλλά ο έρωτας τους, αυτό το σύστημα που αποτελούν, ο κώδικας επικοινωνίας, η αυθυπαρξία μπορεί να τους κάνει αδυσώπητους απέναντι σε όλο τον κόσμο, όπως οι κόρες στον πατέρα Γκοριό, ή η γυναίκα του ανθρωπάκου απ’ το Αρχαγγέλσκ, που δεν έχει καμιά σημασία η καλοσύνη, η αγάπη, γιατί ο έρωτας τυφλώνει και βλέπει τα πάντα σαν εμπόδιο στην ευτυχία του και ορισμένα όρια φαίνονται πολύ εύκαμπτα και εύπλαστα. Ποιος είπε ότι ο έρωτας είναι ηθικός;

Όμως, όσο κι αν η πλοκή ολοκλήρωσε τον κύκλο της φοβάμαι ότι αν τον κοιτάξουμε από μια απόσταση, φαίνεται πως το δεύτερο τόξο είναι κάπως μεγαλύτερο με αποτέλεσμα να είναι παραπάνω απ’ το άλλο τόξο κι αντί για κύκλος το σχήμα που προκύπτει είναι μάλλον υπερβολικής μορφής κι επίσης εκείνοι οι δρόμοι που χαράχτηκαν για τους πρωταγωνιστές διατηρούν μια ιδέα πρόσθετης ραφής. Μπορεί να ‘ναι η ιδέα μου.

<< … μια ιδιαίτερη ευθυμία, λίγο ενοχλητική ίσως – την ευθυμία του ανθρώπου που διασκεδάζει διακριτικά μόνος του, με την ίδια του την ύπαρξη >>

<< κοίταξε το ηλιοκαμένο δέρμα της λεπτής μας γερής γάμπας και σκέφτηκε πως μπορούσε να τη σκοτώσει, μα του ήταν αδύνατο να την αποχωριστεί >>

[Matthew Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

104th book of 2022.

Deliciously sly and wry as always. This is now my 9th Nabokov book as I continue in my journey (after reading Lolita, Pnin and Invitation to a Beheading) of going back to the beginning and reading through him in chronological order*. Glory remains the best of his émigré novels still.

The beginning of this is horribly slow, I read it ages ago and actually dropped it for a few months before picking it back up again. Once it hits its stride, it's everything you read Nabokov for —

Uncle alone in the house with the children said he'd dress up to amuse them. After a long wait, as he did not appear, they went down and saw a masked man putting the table silver into a bag. 'Oh, Uncle,' they cried in delight. 'Yes, isn't my make-up good?' said Uncle, taking his mask off. Thus goes the Hegelian syllogism of humour. Thesis: Uncle made himself up as a burglar (a laugh for the children); antithesis: it was a burglar (a laugh for the reader); synthesis: it still was Uncle (fooling the reader).

Albinus is a sorry man who has an affair. No one gets off lightly in Nabokov's novels though, as we know. He once said in an interview that his characters fear him, when he walks down the streets of his mind, the leaves fall off the trees. Something like that. Martin Amis quoted Nabokov saying that in a different interview somewhere, I lose track of where. It's good when he says it though with his drawling very English accent. It really is laughter in the dark by the end. Good stuff, witty, cheeky, playful, everything you want in a serious novel about marriage, death and money. And most interestingly, it's translated by Nabokov himself from Russian to English. That doesn't happen often.
__________________________

*Reviews so far, excluding later works I've read past this current point:
Mary (1926)
King, Queen, Knave (1928)
The Luzhin Defence (1930)
The Eye (1930)
Glory (1932)
Laughter in the Dark (1933)

[Baktash · Rating 5 out of 5]

اولین کتابی بود که از ناباکوف میخوندم میتونم بگم واقعا یک نویسنده ی چیره دست و گردن کلفت بوده.یک کاربلد.یک کنننده ی کار. و چقدر این کتاب خوب بود. شخصیت ضداجتماعی و سایکوپت "رکس" و شیطنتاش، و "آلیبینوس"  مردی که با اینکه بیناست ولی چشماش حقیقت اطرافش رو نمیبینه و در تاریکیه.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a discussion in the Reading the 20th Century group, and it is a very difficult one to assess and review - three stars may be a bit mean, but that reflects the difference between this book and the likes of Pale Fire and Pnin. The Russian original was published in France in 1933, and Nabokov translated it into English himself five years later, but also described it as "one of his worst novels" in a 1941 letter.

Compared with his later work, it initially seems very light and farcical, but although the main protagonist Albert Albinus is vain, naive and to some extent deserves his fate, the cruelty of the games and deceptions played on him are extreme.

The dramatic first paragraph hints at what is coming: Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.

The "youthful mistress" Margot, something of a Lolita figure, and her lover Rex, who Albinus initially thinks of as a trusted friend, seem at first to be toying with Albinus, but after Albinus is blinded in a car accident, their treatment of him degenerates into sadistic games.. Nabokov devotes very little space to Albinus's innocent wife and daughter.

This must have been quite a bold book for its time, particularly its lack of conventional morality, but parts of it are very funny, and there is plenty of entertaining observational writing.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

What goes around, comes around—right? Ostensibly a story about a man who forsakes his wife and child for a new model vixen (read: teenager), Laughter in the Dark sets a benchmark on how terrible human beings can be to one another and the very real cost that duplicity can exact on all involved. It had me wincing at points and I don’t wince. I’m incapable of wincing; winceless, wince-free; unwincable. Yet wince I did. Wince.

The novel is excruciating in its escalations of suffering. In a whole mess of betrayals, Nabokov almost seems to be trying to one-up himself on who can be awarded the blue ribbon for all-around shittiest human. There are a few runner-ups, terrible people all. For my reading habits, it is all very straightforward but nonetheless fantastic. Thus far it is my favorite of the Russian novels, though I’d gladly have it usurped (because that would mean an out-and-out masterpiece). Meh, this review sucks. Call me uninspired (I believe ‘working’ is the technical term).

I s’pose there are all kinds of novels out there that deal with this sort of stuff, and I’m sure the depravities have escalated as the public’s bloodlust has proven unslakable. I don’t intend on finding out. My collection of Fabio-adorned romance thrillers is purely for my own aesthetic enjoyment alone, thank you very much.

Back to the Nabo I go-go-go…

[Maria Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riso na escuridão precedeu Lolita em mais de 20 anos, e talvez tenha sido a pedra basilar do romance que mudou para sempre a vida de Vladimir Nabokov.

Neste romance, tal como em Lolita, também temos uma jovem adolescente, oriunda de uma família disfuncional, neste romance, também temos um homem maduro que sente o sangue pulsar assim que põe os olhos em cima da sua Lolita.

O livro começa assim:

“Era uma vez um homem chamado Albinus que vivia em Berlim, na Alemanha. Era rico, respeitável e feliz; certo dia abandonou a mulher por causa de uma amante jovem; não era amado; e a sua vida acabou em desastre.”

O primeiro parágrafo do livro e encerra toda a sua história. Mas vale a pena ler o livro para perceber o que aconteceu e como aconteceu tal desastre na vida de Albinus, com repercussões para toda a sua família.

A história é emocionante, porque ao longo do livro o canalha passa a vítima e a vítima passa a canalha, como se costuma dizer, tudo vai e tudo volta, aqui não há santos nem deuses.

Tal como nos humanos, estes personagens são dotados de defeitos e virtudes, e é claro que a balança não pende de forma igual para todos, existem pesos diferentes para cada personagem.

A obra foi publicada em 1936, a primeira versão, mas é um livro muito bem concebido, bem escrito e a narrativa é intemporal.

[aa.wojciechowska2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kazdy bohater zachowuje sie jak zjeb, nikogo nie lubie, z kolei zaraz zaczynam kibicować bohaterowi, którego nie lubiłam. Zaraz zmieniam strone? Swietna manipulacja emocjami. Swietna ksiazka, love max. Polecanko

[Alireza · Rating 4 out of 5]

ناباکوف می گوید نویسنده بایددر آن واحد سه نفر باشد: داستان گو، معلم و جادوگر که در نهایت جادوگر غلبه می کند. کاری که خودِ ناباکوف انجام می دهد.
جادو!
حتی این بدترین و کمترین رمانِ وی از لحاظ خلاقیت های ناباکوف بسیار خواندنی و جذاب است. این رمان در واقع زمانی که از سنت پترزبورگ به برلین مهاجرت کرده بودند نوشته شده. از نظر زمانی تقریبان همزمان با رمان چشم اوست. 1930
در فضای سینماییِ آن روز های برلین، روایتی طنز از قصه ای کلیشه ای را نمایش می دهد. اما طنزی سراسر خلاقیت و "ناباکوفی". طنزی که خودِ ناباکوف آنرا طنزِ هگلی نام نهاده.
تز: برای خنداندن شخصیت ها
آنتی تز: برای خنداندنِ مخاطب
سنتز: برای سردرگمی مخاطب!
به شخصه از خواندنِ آثار این نابغه ی بزرگِ ادبیات که زمان خودش کمتر دیده شد و شاید به حاشیه ی لولیتای معروفش بیشتر پرداخته شد تا نبوغ بی حد و حصرش، لذتی بیش می برم.
البته اندکی هم افسوس می خورم که چرا باید ترجمه ی آثارش را بخوانم. در حالی که معجزه ی اصلیِ او در زبان اصلیِ کتاب رخ داده. و همیشه تا زمانی که زنده بود ترجمه های کتاب هایش زیرِ نظر خودش به وسیله ی پسرش دیمیتری انجام می شد. فقط این بخش از لولیتا را نگاه کنید و فکر کنید که اگر به فارسی ترجمه شود چه لطمه ای خواهد خورد (متاسفانه ذبیح ا... منصوری آنرا به فارسی "تالیف" کرده!!!) س

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns."

[Pep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un hohot în beznă a fost pentru mine ca o revelație — un Nabokov altfel, mai crud, mai nefiltrat, prins într-o fază de formare, dar deja cu temele lui mari bătând la ușă: dorința care distruge, iubirea ca iluzie, cruzimea bine ascunsă sub farmec și ironie. L-am simțit mai direct, mai noir, fără oglinzile și arabescurile stilistice din alte romane, dar cu o ironie rece care face totul și mai apăsător. Un fel de preambul tăcut pentru ce va urma. Cert este că frumusețea și groaza pot coexista într-un zâmbet.

E clar, în romanul ăsta se naște ceva — nu doar o poveste, ci o obsesie. Și o sămânță din care, mai târziu, va crește una dintre cele mai tulburătoare creații literare ale secolului XX - Lolita.

[Heba]

هذه المرة الأولى التي اقرأ فيها لنابكوف ، الفكرة التي تقوم عليها الرواية قد تبدو عادية ولكن رشاقة السرد الروائي وسلاسة الحوارات واحكام الحبكة منحها تميزاً...
في الواقع ليس هنالك زواجاً سعيداً ، هو إما مُستقراً أو شقياً ، ولنقل ان الرجل هنا كان زواجه مُستقراً غير انه اطلق العنان لرغبته اللعينة تلك التي تشهد فناءها لحظة ميلادها ، وقع في شرك الافتتان بفتاة صغيرة السن ولم يرتكن الى منطق العقل أو القلب ، بل الانسياق وراء الرغبة وحدها..وعليه ألا يأمن العواقب التي بانتظاره ...
تساءلت في النهاية لما عندئذ قد يغض الطرف عن تفاهة الفتاة أو جهلها ، ألن تمثل فجوة تفصل بينهما ؟!..
لكن وجدت انه لو افتتن بذكاءها لاحتكم الى منطق العقل ولاكتفى بالاعجاب بها بل والابتعاد عنها لكى لا يتورط في حبها ..لكن ألم اقل لكم انها الرغبة اللعينة ....

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I periodically revisit a handful of authors (kundera, kafka, calvino, queneau, fleming etc.) - why? to reaffirm my faith in humanity, or in something you may call "human achievement?" "art??" (ugh). perhaps for the thrill of experiencing a unique pleasure in a certain kind of intellectual, or, better, cerebral stimulation that has no equal anywhere else in nature (or human construction!) what am I talking about?!?!? all of this is a way of saying that nabokov is one of that select few, perhaps the one that towers over them all. there is simply nothing like reading something he wrote. that said, I hesitate to call this "lesser nabokov," because all that means is that it is far better, more thrilling, more beautiful, more heartbreakingly tragic & hilarious - simultaneously! - than anything else you could ever read. laughter in the dark is from 1938; nabokov has clearly gone as far as he could with telling a straight story, and his ridiculously expanding talents soon pushed him into realms that (it could be said) made him more difficult to read & enjoy. his mastery here of pacing, of detail, and of the delicate balance between tragedy & comedy, pathos & cruelty, is pure perfection. some themes, situations and character studies here are revisited in the author's well-known masterpieces of the 1950s (pnin, lolita), but here they lack any of the occasionally puzzling gamesmanship or linguistic gymnastics of those jewels. this is just a fantastically entertaining read, and one that propels you along with ease and without any guilt at going so quickly. "lesser nabokov??" is there such a thing? I think not!!