What do you think?
Rate this book
Изобретение вальса
Что роднит драматургию Набокова с его стихами и прозой? Как минимум - незримо или зримо присутствующая Россия. Как максимум - тоска по родине, эта "давно разоблаченная морока". Ранние романтические пьесы ("Смерть", "Полюс", "Дедушка", "Скитальцы") написаны в 1923-1924 годах в Берлине; "Событие" и "Изобретение вальса" - во Франции в 1938 году. Постоянное осмысление феномена смерти и растущая по мере временного отдаления тоска по России, столь феерически разрешившаяся в романе "Дар" (1937) и "Других берегах" (1954), - вот два полюса, обеспечившие электрический разряд набоковского творчества.
Смерть
Дедушка
Скитальцы
Полюс
Событие
Изобретение Вальса
Смерть
Дедушка
Скитальцы
Полюс
Событие
Изобретение Вальса
412 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
4 people are currently reading
324 people want to read
About the author
Vladimir Nabokov
893 books15k followersVladimir 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
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
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 25, 2023
Woe, woe .... The time has come of great calamities and many upheavals. . . . Woe!
The Waltz Invention is a tragicomedy in three acts; a satirical play about a man called Waltz who claims to have access to a machine of mass destruction called Telemort.
After being dismissed as a head case, a nearby mountain is reduced to dust in an explosion.
Waltz claims responsibility. He declares he can obliterate any place on the planet, any time he chooses to.
Men leave, deeds remain.
Is he mad? Is the machine a dream, a chimera born of delirium?
Or is Waltz now the most powerful man in the world?
The Waltz Invention is a tragicomedy in three acts; a satirical play about a man called Waltz who claims to have access to a machine of mass destruction called Telemort.
After being dismissed as a head case, a nearby mountain is reduced to dust in an explosion.
Waltz claims responsibility. He declares he can obliterate any place on the planet, any time he chooses to.
Men leave, deeds remain.
Is he mad? Is the machine a dream, a chimera born of delirium?
Or is Waltz now the most powerful man in the world?
June 25, 2016
سیاست مدارانی که به بچه های دبستانی می ماندند.
مخترعی مجنون که ریشه ی جنونش در کودکی اش بود.
دستیاری که خلسه نام داشت و داستان را به پیش می برد.
کوهی که هم چنان منتظر منفجر شدن است و رویایی که واقعیت محض بود.
+نماد ها و کلیت نمایشنامه را دوست داشتم. ولی کتابی نبود که بتوانم سال های سال به خاطرش داشته باشم. طنز های به کاربرده شده سطحی بودند و احساس می کنم اگر نسخه ی انگلیسی را می خواندم لااقل می توانستم بازی با کلمات را بیشتر دوست داشته باشم.
مخترعی مجنون که ریشه ی جنونش در کودکی اش بود.
دستیاری که خلسه نام داشت و داستان را به پیش می برد.
کوهی که هم چنان منتظر منفجر شدن است و رویایی که واقعیت محض بود.
+نماد ها و کلیت نمایشنامه را دوست داشتم. ولی کتابی نبود که بتوانم سال های سال به خاطرش داشته باشم. طنز های به کاربرده شده سطحی بودند و احساس می کنم اگر نسخه ی انگلیسی را می خواندم لااقل می توانستم بازی با کلمات را بیشتر دوست داشته باشم.
August 28, 2017
یک دانشمند سلاح مرگباری اختراع میکند که میتواند با فشار یک دکمه هر جایی را نابود کند. یکی از دوستان دانشمند به اسم «والس» میخواهد در مورد این اختراع با بالاترین مقام نظامی کشور مذاکره کند. ژنرالهای ابتدا فکر میکنند که میخواهد اختراعش را به ارتش بفروشد اما هدف والس چیز دیگری است.
ناباکوف این نمایشنامه را سال ۱۹۳۸ در فرانسه نوشت، زمانی که هنوز بمب اتمی اختراع نشده بود.
پ.ن: از اواسط کتاب ریتمش کند میشد و ماجراها دیگر جذاب نبودند. انگار برای نویسنده نقد قدرت و بیان دغدغههایش پررنگتر از خودِ ماجرا و داستان بود.
https://goo.gl/sNp6Nu
October 16, 2016
بهشدت عالی!
هرکسی تو خودش یک غولِ قدرت خواه و عاشق سلطه نداره؟
تو این نمایش، وقتی هیجان زده میشی ینی داری این غول رو درونت!
هرکسی تو خودش یک غولِ قدرت خواه و عاشق سلطه نداره؟
تو این نمایش، وقتی هیجان زده میشی ینی داری این غول رو درونت!
April 24, 2019
نمایشنامهای در سه پرده، دربارهی چیزی که گفتنی نیست.
به عنوان نمایشنامه دستآورد دراماتیکی نداره، اما به عنوان یه داستان، استادانهست و عمیق و بسیار دقیق! چرخدندههایی به ظرافت بیشترین ساعتها، که زیر پوششی پارچهای و ساده و کمنقش اما خوشرنگ کار خودشون رو میکنن و میچرخن و میسازن.
به عنوان نمایشنامه دستآورد دراماتیکی نداره، اما به عنوان یه داستان، استادانهست و عمیق و بسیار دقیق! چرخدندههایی به ظرافت بیشترین ساعتها، که زیر پوششی پارچهای و ساده و کمنقش اما خوشرنگ کار خودشون رو میکنن و میچرخن و میسازن.
April 5, 2009
I can't help but cast Peter Sellers in several roles. He's Waltz: Sellers with thick glasses; he's the Minister: Sellers with prosthetic jowls. You get the idea: Dr. Strangelove.
***
My favorite line in Act One was delivered at the very end by Annabella Gump (described in the Dramatis Personae as "A very pretty young girl, more or less real"...and defended in the introduction as being "five years older than Lolita")
The following three lines come at the end, like I said, of Act One, after Waltz uses his mysterious wavelength war-machine to flatten a glorious, conical mountain (a demonstration for the Minister and the Colonel).
Annabella: And do you know who lived there?
Waltz: No. Who?
Annabella: An old enchanter and a snow-white gazelle.
What do I like? Just the idea, presented winkingly here, that we populate the scenery around us with the fantastical. And when war, famine, pestilence or some other iron-hoofed dreadnaut lashes out at a particular place or person: it's not just the reality which is flattened, turned to dust. But the fantastical which we've imbued (gifted) the person-place-thing: the fantastical also takes a blow, is blown.
(Though, true: the fantastical reconstitutes itself in time, over time. Yes, we dream of the dead and we dream of the vanished: There you are!)
And, sorry Nab', despite your protests in the intro, old enchanter=H.H. and snow-white gazelle=Lo-li-ta. This is what you always talk about when you talk about magicians and unicorns, pal.
***
And...it was all a dream.
***
My favorite line in Act One was delivered at the very end by Annabella Gump (described in the Dramatis Personae as "A very pretty young girl, more or less real"...and defended in the introduction as being "five years older than Lolita")
The following three lines come at the end, like I said, of Act One, after Waltz uses his mysterious wavelength war-machine to flatten a glorious, conical mountain (a demonstration for the Minister and the Colonel).
Annabella: And do you know who lived there?
Waltz: No. Who?
Annabella: An old enchanter and a snow-white gazelle.
What do I like? Just the idea, presented winkingly here, that we populate the scenery around us with the fantastical. And when war, famine, pestilence or some other iron-hoofed dreadnaut lashes out at a particular place or person: it's not just the reality which is flattened, turned to dust. But the fantastical which we've imbued (gifted) the person-place-thing: the fantastical also takes a blow, is blown.
(Though, true: the fantastical reconstitutes itself in time, over time. Yes, we dream of the dead and we dream of the vanished: There you are!)
And, sorry Nab', despite your protests in the intro, old enchanter=H.H. and snow-white gazelle=Lo-li-ta. This is what you always talk about when you talk about magicians and unicorns, pal.
***
And...it was all a dream.
February 28, 2012
We've tried to make a home movie of this with teddy bears... it gets surreal...
October 12, 2016
Funny, profound, and actually a pretty accurate portrayal of some facets of our government at this juncture in time. Nabokov, what can you say about a man who can write a profound novel on a perverted old man and then write a goddam play like this. He is a versatile master of the written word. I'd suggest giving it a read if you can find a copy.
May 1, 2014
نمایشنامه رو به صورت کپی آچار ازش یه نسخه دارم. قرار بود دبیرستان اجراش کنیم ولی نکردیم. چیزی ندارم راجع به ش بگم. اولین باری بود که با ناباکوف آشنا میشدم.
March 9, 2025
Witty dialogue, an eccentric madman, with an invention that is sadly less fantastic than one would hope, since it's very much reality these days.
February 2, 2013
Similar to Invitation to a Beheading and Bend Sinister in its surreal tone and political setting. Dreamlike, but not in a Kafkaesque way, more like the play is about to dissolve into an electric blue fog at all times. Funny (though not laugh out loud funny), but not as good as The Event.
May 22, 2009
کلا همه جوره به جناب ناباکوف ارادت دارم . با اون طنز بی نظیرش
July 13, 2016
Well, the great writer wasn't a playwright . . . .
May 30, 2022
Читала когда-то где-то что Зинаида Гиппиус говорила Владимиру Набокову-старшему о том, что его сын никогда не станет писателем. Детальной информации по поводу этой фразы я пока не нашла, но скорее всего она основывала своё мнение на начальных произведениях Владимира Набокова-младшего, скорее стихах, но может и этих самых пьесах (входящие в этот сборник "Скитальцы", "Смерть", "Дедушка" и "Полюс" были написаны с 1921 по 1924 год и изданы даже до "Машеньки") и её мнение можно понять.
"Событию" я дала бы 3 из 5, планировала так и поступить со всей книгой, но последним прочла "Изобретение Вальса" и - ну нет.
"Событию" я дала бы 3 из 5, планировала так и поступить со всей книгой, но последним прочла "Изобретение Вальса" и - ну нет.
January 25, 2018
This play was intended to make one point, and it can be argued that one point is all any composition should make.
I would very much like to see this performed according to the instructions of the author. I believe it would not only be entertaining, but it would give us relevant and topical instruction on the politics of today.
The fact that he anticipated the nuclear age opens interesting lines of discussion, as well.
I would very much like to see this performed according to the instructions of the author. I believe it would not only be entertaining, but it would give us relevant and topical instruction on the politics of today.
The fact that he anticipated the nuclear age opens interesting lines of discussion, as well.
January 5, 2022
No es la mejor obra de Nabokov, que es como decir que fuiste de visita a Roma y estaba nublado.
Aquí dicen de lamer un ojo y es sensacional, pero cuando dicen de lamer un ojo en Lolita, siendo la misma ciudad, hace sol.
Para los muy entusiastas: contiene prólogo. ¿Nadie va a hacer una antología de prólogos de Nabokov?
Aquí dicen de lamer un ojo y es sensacional, pero cuando dicen de lamer un ojo en Lolita, siendo la misma ciudad, hace sol.
Para los muy entusiastas: contiene prólogo. ¿Nadie va a hacer una antología de prólogos de Nabokov?
July 9, 2022
A curiosity of patent absurdity. I'm certain Nabokov was presenting a message, in spite of his protests to the contrary - otherwise, why be bothered? But the message is beyond my capacity to capture and appreciate. There were some witty lines and nuances, but all in all, not for me. Two and a half meager stars.
February 19, 2020
Not a bad concept overall, but I didn't really enjoy reading about a bunch of cartoon politicians yelling at each other in a stage script format. I didn't really feel like it had any meaning until the end.
Read
August 19, 2019Nice to know that even Nabokov wrote a story with the ending, "And then he woke up."
November 28, 2021
Bravo, maestro! 80 years later the play is more acute and important than ever! Would love to see it on scene one day!
June 20, 2024
Super entertaining. Felt like a kurt vonnegut, but with more complex character depth.
December 27, 2025
Nabokov's Dr. Strangelove.
April 17, 2022
The introduction to my copy, written by Nabokov to contextualize why this book was written, gives away the plot of the play, but I was still impressed by how the story gets us to the end. The overarching theme of "Yo, maybe nuclear weapons are bad?" provided a pervading threat to much of the play, even as the buffoon-generals engage in laught-out-loud funny actions. At the end, when we discover the twist (I won't give it away, just read the introduction), Nabokov gives us a chance to see that all could be alright; however, given the 84 years between the initial publication of the play and today, we know how that has gone.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to everyone, but if you are interested in nuclear weapons, pre-WWII opinions around experiments with nuclear chemistry, or are a Nabokov groupie, then it's worth the quick read!
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to everyone, but if you are interested in nuclear weapons, pre-WWII opinions around experiments with nuclear chemistry, or are a Nabokov groupie, then it's worth the quick read!
April 27, 2011
While I admire Nabokov's prose style and tricky plotting, there is something deeply unsatisfying about seeing many of those same techniques presented in dramatic form. The idea and many of the incidents are amusing, but much of what I thought as I read this was what horrendous theater it would make. This runs contrary to Nabokov's thinking, as elaborated in his introduction, written in 1966 during the beginnings of the countercultural upheaval and peace protests, in which he is insistent on separating himself from such pacifism: the message of his play, he says, is not about peace, but about the stupidity of totalitarianism; the drive for peace on the part of a mass of people would result in a society worse than the Soviet Union, and his important play shows this (he concludes). Unfortunately, no, it doesn't show that at all; it does show his inability to understand complex social phenomena and his disdain for leftist politics and for psychoanalysis (boy, don't those rants get old...). I think I'll stick with his novels.
October 31, 2023
Nabokov's play "The Waltz Invention" takes place in a fanciful, despotic European country. A man named Salvator Waltz, who no one has ever seen, appears before the Minister of War. Waltz offers a machine that can destroy the entire Earth. Chaos abounds.
For fun here are the names of the other characters:
Colonel Plump, General Gump, Mypoic Bump, Dump a naturalized Ute, Hump an undersized, Corpulent Lump, Red Mump, Intersexual Rump, One-legged Stump, Viola Trance, Annabella Gump, Cleopatra, Olga, A Fat Girl, A Skinny Girl, A Old Blonde.
Isn't that wonderful?
For fun here are the names of the other characters:
Colonel Plump, General Gump, Mypoic Bump, Dump a naturalized Ute, Hump an undersized, Corpulent Lump, Red Mump, Intersexual Rump, One-legged Stump, Viola Trance, Annabella Gump, Cleopatra, Olga, A Fat Girl, A Skinny Girl, A Old Blonde.
Isn't that wonderful?
Currently reading
August 13, 2008The Waltz Invention by Nabokov
July 16, 2011
I've always wondered how this would translate on stage...
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews