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Волшебник / Solus Rex
Настоящее издание составили два последних крупных произведения Владимира Набокова европейского периода, написанные в Париже перед отъездом в Америку в 1940 г. Оба оказали решающее влияние на все последующее англоязычное творчество писателя. Повесть «Волшебник» (1939) — первая попытка Набокова изложить тему «Лолиты», роман «Solus Rex» (1940) — приближение к замыслу «Бледного огня». Сожалея о незавершенности «Solus Rex», Набоков заметил, что «по своему колориту, по стилистическому размаху и изобилию, по чему-то неопределяемому в его мощном глубинном течении, он обещал решительно отличаться от всех других моих русских сочинений». В Приложении публикуется отрывок из архивного машинописного текста «Solus Rex», исключенный из парижской журнальной публикации.
188 pages, Hardcover
Published March 23, 2022
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About the author
Vladimir Nabokov
863 books15.1k 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
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January 4, 2026
"Волшебник" - повесть, предшественница "Лолиты".
Канва сюжета - взрослый мужчина одержим маленькой девочкой (с совсем не невинными помыслами) и женится на ее больной матери для получения последующей опеки над девочкой.
И кажется цель почти достигнута, но в самый неподходящий момент девочка просыпается, начинает кричать и рушит все.
Не смотря на повторение сюжетной канвы между "Волшебником" и "Лолитой", явно считывается, что повесть ограничена лишь этой сюжетной линией, а в "Лолите" Набоков уже отполировал свои навыки написания многоуровневых сюжетов, где все совсем не так, как кажется на первый взгляд.
"Solus Rex" - последний незаконченный русскоязычный роман автора, работу над которым он планировал продолжить в Америке, но так и не продолжил.
Набоковеды говорят об отголосках главной темы - смерти, неизвестного предела, конечности или бесконечности сознания - во многих других романах автора - "Под знаком незаконорожденного", "Бледное пламя", "Приглашение на казнь", даже "Ада".
В общем же, как и любой текст автора - это бесконечно красивое блуждание по знакомым буквам и словам, которые магическим образом складываются в прекрасные, не всегда понятные и зачастую неразгаданные смыслы.
Надо бы почаще возвращаться к текстам Набокова, за прошлый год совсем не читала автора.
Для более глубокого погружения также можно почитать анализ произведений от Д.Б.Джонсона "Миры и антимиры Владимира Набокова"
Канва сюжета - взрослый мужчина одержим маленькой девочкой (с совсем не невинными помыслами) и женится на ее больной матери для получения последующей опеки над девочкой.
И кажется цель почти достигнута, но в самый неподходящий момент девочка просыпается, начинает кричать и рушит все.
Не смотря на повторение сюжетной канвы между "Волшебником" и "Лолитой", явно считывается, что повесть ограничена лишь этой сюжетной линией, а в "Лолите" Набоков уже отполировал свои навыки написания многоуровневых сюжетов, где все совсем не так, как кажется на первый взгляд.
"Solus Rex" - последний незаконченный русскоязычный роман автора, работу над которым он планировал продолжить в Америке, но так и не продолжил.
Набоковеды говорят об отголосках главной темы - смерти, неизвестного предела, конечности или бесконечности сознания - во многих других романах автора - "Под знаком незаконорожденного", "Бледное пламя", "Приглашение на казнь", даже "Ада".
В общем же, как и любой текст автора - это бесконечно красивое блуждание по знакомым буквам и словам, которые магическим образом складываются в прекрасные, не всегда понятные и зачастую неразгаданные смыслы.
Надо бы почаще возвращаться к текстам Набокова, за прошлый год совсем не читала автора.
Для более глубокого погружения также можно почитать анализ произведений от Д.Б.Джонсона "Миры и антимиры Владимира Набокова"
Displaying 1 of 1 review