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...VLADIMIR NABOKOV DIED IN 1977 to mixed reviews. Not everyone was captivated by his erudition, multilingual wordplay and narrative frolics. But those who tuned to his wavelength came to appreciate that the style and gamesmanship so intimidating to his competition disguised the author's larger task: to heighten the pleasures of the natural world and the gratifications of personal creativity...
Sensuality is an underappreciated quality in Nabokov's writing, and with good reason. Sinfully rich novels like The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Pale Fire and even that great American road novel Lolita are cleverly defended against casual entry. Nabokov's short fictions, on the other hand, are thresholds to his themes and some of the most nape-tingling prose and devilish inventions in 20th century letters. So better late than never, The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (Knopf; 659 pages; $35) is a welcome edition to the shelves of old admirers and a chance for entry-level fans...
Edited by Nabokov's son Dmitri, the omnibus brings together 65 tales and sketches. Most have appeared at least once in previous collections. Many are translations of originals written during the 1920s and '30s for Russian emigre publications in Berlin and Paris. Eleven have recently been translated into English for the first time, among them The Wood-Sprite, written in 1921 and listed as the author's first published story...
PEOPLE SUPPOSEDLY IN THE KNOW have been saying for years that Irish poet Seamus Heaney would one day win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Of course, people said the same thing about Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges and Graham Greene, illustrious authors and notorious nonwinners. Against that background, the Swedish Academy's selection of Heaney, announced last week, qualifies as something of a surprise: the laurel went to someone widely seen as deserving...
...always required wafting along with a flood of eloquence and accepting that floods are by nature excessive. There are few authors of whom it is less profitable to ask what in the world he may be getting at. Among novelists who fall into the magician category, Joyce and Nabokov, far more cerebral writers, could produce verbal astonishments as readily. Not many others come to mind. If there is a trouble with Helprin's writing, it is that readers may have come by now to expect little more than to be dazzled every few pages...